Antiqued Bronze Dancing Nataraja Nataraj Lord Shiva Dance Statue

Shiva (or Siva) is one of the  most important gods in the Hindu pantheon and, along with Brahma and Vishnu, is  considered a member of the holy trinity (trimurti) of Hinduism.

A complex character, he may represent goodness, benevolence and serve as the  Protector but he also has a darker side as the leader of evil spirits, ghosts  and vampires and as the master of thieves, villains and beggars. He is also associated with  Time, and particularly as the destroyer of all things. Nevertheless, Shiva is  also associated with creation.

In Hinduism, the universe is thought to regenerate in cycles (every  2,160,000,000 years). Shiva destroys the universe at the end of each cycle which  then allows for a new Creation.

Shiva is also the great ascetic, abstaining from all forms of indulgence and  pleasure, concentrating rather on meditation as a means to find perfect  happiness. He is the most important Hindu god for the Shaivism sect, the patron of Yogis  and Brahmins, and also the protector of the Vedas, the sacred texts. 

Shiva is the god of the yogis, self-controlled and celibate, while at the same  time a lover of his spouse (Shakti). Lord Shiva is the destroyer of the world,  following Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver, after which Brahma again creates the world and so on.  Shiva is responsible for change both in the form of death and destruction and in  the positive sense of destroying the ego, the false identification with the form. This also  includes the shedding of old habits and attachments.

All that has a beginning by necessity must have an end. In destruction, truly  nothing is destroyed but the illusion of individuality. Thus the power of  destruction associated with Lord Shiva has great purifying power, both on a more  personal level when problems make us see reality more clearly, as on a more  universal level. Destruction opens the path for a new creation of the universe,  a new opportunity for the beauty and drama of universal illusion to unfold. As Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram or Truth, Goodness and Beauty, Shiva represents the most essential goodness.

While of course many Hindu deities are associated with different paths of yoga  and meditation, in Shiva the art of meditation takes its most absolute form. In  meditation, not only mind is stopped, everything is dropped. In deep meditation  or samadhi, even the object of the meditation (like a mantra) is transformed  into its formless essence, which is the essence of everything and everyone. Thus  Shiva stands for letting go of everything in the world of forms. The path of  Lord Shiva is the path of the ascetic yogi.

Forms of Shiva

Shiva has many forms, which are visible in his Panchavaktra form with 5 heads, a  combination of all Shiva energies : Aghora (resides in the cremation grounds),  Ishana (most often appears as the shivalingam), Tat Purusha (meditating), Varna  Deva (the eternal Shiva) and Saddyojat or Braddha Rudra (the old wrathful form).  The last also forms the connection to the Rudraksha mala - a rosary made of the  dried fruits of the Rudraksha tree.

The Mahamrityunyaya form of Shiva is the great conqueror of death. The  Mahamrityunjaya mantra is one of the two main mantras of the Vedas, next to the  Gayatri mantra. It is chanted to remove death and disease. This form of Shiva  also is the being of pure joy, referring to the unconditioned enjoyment of the  perfectly peaceful mind. That is the true nature of the divine elixir that this  Shiva offers his devotees in no less than four hands.

Another main form of Shiva is Ardhnarishwara, half Shiva, half Shakti. Also  related to Shiva is Indra.

Shiva is the god of the yogis, self-controlled and celibate, while at the same  time a lover of his spouse (Shakti). Lord Shiva is the destroyer of the world,  following Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver, after which Brahma again  creates the world and so on. Shiva is responsible for change both in the form of  death and destruction and in the positive sense of destroying the ego, the false  identification with the form. This also includes the shedding of old habits and  attachments.

All that has a beginning by necessity must have an end. In destruction, truly  nothing is destroyed but the illusion of individuality. Thus the power of  destruction associated with Lord Shiva has great purifying power, both on a more  personal level when problems make us see reality more clearly, as on a more  universal level. Destruction opens the path for a new creation of the universe,  a new opportunity for the beauty and drama of universal illusion to unfold. As  Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram or Truth, Goodness and Beauty, Shiva represents the  most essential goodness.

While of course many Hindu deities are associated with different paths of yoga  and meditation, in Shiva the art of meditation takes its most absolute form. In  meditation, not only mind is stopped, everything is dropped. In deep meditation  or samadhi, even the object of the meditation (like a mantra) is transformed  into its formless essence, which is the essence of everything and everyone. Thus  Shiva stands for letting go of everything in the world of forms. The path of  Lord Shiva is the path of the ascetic yogi.

Attributes of Lord Shiva

Shiva's main attributes are :

- the trident that represents the three gunas
- the snakes that show he is beyond the power of death and poison and also stand  for the Kundalini energy.
- the sound of Shiva's two-sided drum maintains the rhythm of the heartbeat and  creates the sound AUM in the overtones.
- the vehicle of Shiva is the white bull called Nandi (the joyful).
- Shiva is often seated on a tiger skin or wears a tiger skin, with the tiger  representing the mind.
- Shiva lives on Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas.

Relationships

The power or energy of Shiva is Shakti, his spouse, of which Parvati is probably  the most popular form. Shiva's first wife was Sati and his second wife was Parvati.

They are also known by many other names, such as Uma, Gauri, Durga, Kali,  Annapurna and Shakti. His sons are Ganesha and Kartikeya.

Shiva and Parvati are often shown as sitting in happy, intimate embrace. They  also like to discuss philosophy. Shiva taught Parvati on Vedanta (transcendent  knowledge), while Parvati tought him Sankhya (cosmological knowledge). Both were perfected  yogis.

After their marriage, they left for mount Kailash and immersed themselves  completely in a sexual intercourse so strong that the deity of desire Kama was  reborn when their sweat mingles with his ashes. Their love was so intense that it shook the cosmos and  frightened even the gods.

Parvati often incarnated as Kali and Durga. She was in fact a reincarnation of  Sati (or Dakshayani), the daughter of the god Daksha. Daksha did not approve of  Sati’s marriage to Shiva and even went further and held a special sacrificial ceremony to all the gods  except Shiva. Outraged at this slight, Sati threw herself on the sacrificial  fire. Shiva reacted to this tragedy by creating two demons (Virabhadra and  Rudrakali) from his hair who wreaked havoc on the ceremony and beheaded Daksha.  The other gods appealed to Shiva to end the violence and, complying, he brought  Daksha back to life but with the head of a ram (or goat). Sati was eventually  reincarnated as Parvati in her next life and she re-married Shiva.

With Parvati, Shiva had a son, the god Ganesha. The boy was in fact created out  of earth and clay to keep her company and protect her while Shiva went on his  meditative wanderings. However, Shiva returned one day and, finding the boy  guarding the room where Parvati was bathing, he enquired who he was. Not  believing the boy was his son, and thinking him an impudent beggar, Shiva called  up the bhutaganas demons who fought the boy and eventually managed to distract  him with the appearance of the beautiful Maya and, whilst he admired the beauty,  they lopped off his head. At the commotion, Parvati rushed from her bath and  screamed that her son had been killed. Realising his error, Shiva then sent for  a new head with which to make the boy whole again but the nearest at hand was of  an elephant. And so Ganesha, the elephant-headed god, was born. Other sons of  Shiva are Skanda or Karttikeya, the god of war and Kuvera, the god of treasures.

The balance between male and female can also be obtained in marriage, when both  partners complement each other to form an ultimate oneness, which is the source  of creation.

When Shiva does his destructive Tandava dance, Parvati is said to complement him  with a slow, creative step of her own, calming him with her soft glances. While  Shiva shows a wilder nature that is both ascetic and erotic, Parvati stands for  the middle path of the householder. As Shiva exulted in his romantic dalliance  with her, the true mother in her longed for a child. Shiva resisted the life of  a householder, but Parvati's desire for it was greater than his resistance.  Hence first Ganesha was born, later also Kartikay.

The Shiva Lingam
Lord Shiva is conceived in his unborn, invisible form as the Shiva Lingam. The  Lingam represents the male creative energy of Shiva. This main symbol of Shiva  is  worshipped in virtually every Hindu temple and home. The phallus is not worshipped as such, but through it Shiva is worshipped as the supreme  consciousness. 

Embracing the base of the linga is the yoni, the female organ, as  the universal energy, as Shakti, Shiva's spouse. Through profound understanding of this symbol,  the mystery of creation can be understood as an act of love.

When Ganga incarnated on Earth, Lord Shiva captured her in his hair to avoid  that she would flood all of Earth.

Shiva worshippers (Shaivites) are among India's most ascetic yogis, their body  smeared with ashes, dressed in saffron colors and wearing a Rudraksha mala. The  path of Shiva can thus be seen as the inward-going path, the great journey to  find the self. This path is complementary to the path of Vishnu, which is the  outgoing path, bringing out the self from within and letting it manifest in the  universe and our lives. 

Ganga (the goddess who personified the river Ganges) was given to Shiva by  Vishnu who could not take any more of the constant quarrels between his then  three wives of Lakshmi (goddess of good fortune), Saraswati (goddess of wisdom)  and Ganga. To cushion Ganga’s fall to the earth, and prevent such a great river  destroying civilisation, Shiva caught her in his hair topknot; once again,  illustrating his quality of self-sacrifice. 

As with any major god, Shiva was involved in many adventurous episodes which  illustrate his virtuous character and offer instruction on how to live  correctly. For example, how Shiva became associated with the bull Nandi. One  day, Surabhi, who was the original mother of all the world’s cows, began to give  birth to an untold number of perfectly white cows. The milk from all these cows floodedthe home of Shiva, somewhere in the  Himalaya. Angry at this disturbance to his meditation, the god struck the cows  with fire from his third eye. In consequence, patches of the cows’ hides were turned brown. Still angry, the  other gods sought to calm Shiva down by offering him a magnificent bull - Nandi,  the son of Surabhi and Kasyapa - which Shiva accepted and rode. Nandi also  became the protector of all animals. 

In Asian art Shiva may be represented in slightly different ways depending on  the particular culture: Indian, Cambodian, Javanese etc. but he is most commonly  depicted naked, with multiple arms and with his hair tied up in a topknot. He  often has three horizontal stripes and a third vertical eye on his forehead. He  wears a headdress with a crescent moon and a skull (representing the fifth head  of Brahma, which he decapitated as punishment for the god lusting after his own  daughter Sandhya), a necklace of heads, and snakes as bracelets.

Shiva may also be depicted standing on one leg with the right leg folded in  front of the left knee and holding a rosary in his right hand, the typical  posture of ascetic meditation. Sometimes he also rides his white bull, carries a silver bow (Pinaka), holds an  antelope, and wears a tiger or elephant skin, all symbolic of his famed prowess  as a hunter.