Many of us are devout followers of Shiva. But, we
worship Him without understanding the deep meaning of Shiva.
In Hindu mythology, Shiva is one of the three forms
(trimurtis) of God, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, the Hindu Triumvirate.
The Parmatama or spirit or what is called as God
can be classified as a mixture of three forces representing Generator (creator
or Brahma), Organizer, (maintainer or Vishnu) and Destroyer (completing or
Mahesh or Shiva). These three similar forces come into play in our body to
perform any work. They can be denoted as: Idea generation or creation,
maintaining or organizing the contents of the idea, and then destroying or
completing, so that new work can be undertaken through Ganesha, the Lord of new
beginnings.
One must understand and implement the principles of
Lord Shiva in day to day life. This can be done by understanding the meaning of
the form of Shiva.
Classically, Shiva is worshipped in a sitting
meditating pose, sitting on a deer’s skin with a background
of white Himalayas and blue sky (akash). Shiva is also depicted with ashes
from graveyard smeared on his body, a snake around his neck, Ganga flowing out
of his hair, three eyes, blue neck, trishul in one hand and damru in his other
hand.
All these symbolic representations have a deep
spiritual meaning and tell us about Shiva’s principles of success.
Of the three eyes of Shiva, the left eye indicates
love; the right eye signifies justice and the third eye wisdom or intelligence.
To work effectively, one must use both eyes i.e. doing every work with love and
justice. Any work done with love and without justice will lead to pampering,
and justice without love will lead to rudeness. The third eye should be used in
times of difficulty. The message here is: whenever you are in difficulty, use
your intelligence and wisdom. The opening of the third eye opening means the
disappearance of ignorance (darkness or pralaya).
The half open-eye meditating pose teaches us that
in daily life, one should be as calm as if you are in the meditation pose.
Being calm or practicing calmness helps in achieving better results.
The snake around the neck represents ego. And, the
downward posture of the head of the snake indicates that ego should be directed
towards the consciousness and not outwards. The ego should be kept under
control and not let it overpower you.
The blue colour symbolizes sin or negative
thoughts. Shiva as neelkanth (blue neck) teaches us that one should the
negative emotions should never be expressed nor suppressed; instead they should
be altered or modified. This indicates that the poison is neither to be drunk
nor to be spitted out but to be kept in the throat by making it a part of the life.
For example, an episode of anger should neither be expressed nor suppressed.
Suppressed anger releases chemicals in the body causing acidity, asthma, angina
and diarrhea etc. Expressed anger creates an unhealthy social environment. The
only way is to alter or modify the anger by wilful cultivation of opposite
positive thoughts in the mind. Therefore, the process of silently passing on
love to any individual can take away the angry thoughts from the mind (love is
opposite of anger).
The ash on the body of Shiva reminds that
everything in the universe is perishable and nothing is going to remain with
the poison. The message here is that ‘you have come in this world without
anything and will go back without anything, then why worry’.
The trishul in one hand represents control of three
factors i.e. mind, intellect and ego. It also represents controlling the three
mental gunas i.e. sattva, rajas and tamas.
The damru, the hollow structure represents ‘taking
all your ego and desires out of the body’.
The blue Akash represents vastness and openness;
the white mountains represent purity and truthfulness.
It is customary to fast on Shivaratri. Fasting does
not simply mean missing a meal or not eating that day; it also means fasting or
abstaining from all negativities “see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil”.
Fasting also indicates controlling the desires for eating foods (like
fermented, sweet, sour and salt) and controlling the negative thoughts both in
the mind as well as in action.
By adopting these principles, one will attain a
free flow of knowledge, which is represented by the Ganga coming out of the
hairs of the Lord Shiva. The matted hairs of Shiva represent tapas and signify
that nothing in the universe is impossible without contemplation and repeated
practice.
If one follows Shiva’s principles in everyday life,
one will find no obstacles in routine life as well as in the spiritual journey.
Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
President Elect Confederation of Medical
Associations in Asia and Oceania
(CMAAO)
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications
President Heart Care Foundation of India
Past National President IMA
No comments:
Post a Comment