Click on photo to enlargeLost in the ancient sands of the Thar, dotted with the ruins of a great fort that once held the mirror of Rani Padmini, now offers the Sammidheshwar temple. Born into the rich temple fortress of the Mewar dynasty at the seat of Chittor, surrounded by the victory tower on one side and Mahasati (royal cremation ground) on the other, Shiva is presented in mind blowing splendor.
Rajasthan speaks poetry, and Mewar speaks valor, self respect and death with honor. Mewar, the name, makes one breathe in deep, to just listen to the galloping horse hoofs of Rana Kumbha who dashed down the fort to meet the Mughals at the bottom of the plateau. In the air, one can still listen to the bhajans of Mira Bai as she sang her heart out to Krishna. Mewar also echoes the shrikes of women who burnt themselves in Jauhar(mass sacrifice by self immolation). Within these very fort walls, in the exquisitely carved temple of Sammidheshwar lies this form of Adbhutanata Shiva.
One way of perceiving it is as follows:
We last heard of Shiva Trimurti at Elephanta where the Vakataka empire had sculpted Him out exquisitely early in the 5th cen AD. Later He has been profusely sculpted symbolically as Trimurti embedded within the Nataraja by the Cholas in the 8th cen AD, with the creator, preserver and the destroyer appearing as the Damaru (creation), and the fire bowl (destruction) on either side of the Lord. Trimurthi is the name given to any form of Lord Shiva that displays Vamadeva(feminine) and Aghora(fierce) simultaneously but these representations are also numbered. Alternatively he is represented with Brahma and Vishnu. He appears in the Sammidheshwar temple in the 6th cen A.D as Adbhutanata alias Trimurthi possibly.
Another way to perceive Him is to feel the interiors of the temple within which He lies.
The outside of the Sammidheshwar temple is laced in marble with exquisite shikharas rising up to the Kalash(pot). As the walls rise high, in marble finery carved with sculpture of Gods and Kanyas, the inside of the temple is a passage opening into a cool, hollow dimly lit room open to the roof rising high up. This is a well lit interior, the walls of which appear strong and solid unlike their delicate appearance on the outside.
Click on photo to enlargeLaghima means lightness, that is the perfection that makes the body levitate at will. Adbhutanata Shiva presents us with the Rasa of adbhuta, or wonder and astonishment that translates to this perfection. Rasa associates itself in the ancient texts with aesthetics of perfection, adbhuta(meaning wonder and astonishment) is a Rasa experienced when one attainst the siddhi of Laghima.
Wonder towards what? In this rather abstract theory, which I hope to construct, astonishment and wonder is connected with the miracle of life and the appreciation of it as much as its experience. This is where the simplicity of living is realized as a miracle, where the aspirant humbly accepts the miracle of "living" with every breath.
It is strange that the Chittor fort sang the praises of its dead on every rock and hosts a Shiva temple that praises the miracle of life!
Photo Courtesy:Shunya.net
49 comments:
Sammidhi perhaps is derived from ‘Sannidhi’ that is closeness (or nearness). ‘Sammidheshwar’, perhaps thus, relates with Shiva as Bholenath or ‘simple God’ who believably is close to an ‘ordinary’ or ‘common’ man even, that is, He is easily approachable by anyone who is simple to get one’s desire fulfilled that wasn’t meant to be misused (as for example in case of Bhagirath requesting Him to allow Ganga to descend upon His head from moon for revival of 60,000 sons of King Sagar)...
He is believed to easily grant boons to one and all, ‘good’ or ‘evil’ in the eyes of ignorant humans, whosoever worshipped Him (as the example of rivers allowing water to all and sundry, trees its fruits etc. as it is generally cited)…
However, He believably often got into trouble Himself, for because of His apparent simplicity, ‘asuras’, or ‘Rakshashas’, that is, demons - believably after getting undue powers as boons from Him - got their heads bloated with greed and pride, such that they foolishly thought of killing Shiva Himself to grab control over the entire globe (like Bhasmasur)!
They all however failed miserably, due to lack of overall knowledge of His unlimited capacity as Mahakal, the controller of apparent time and related events with the three aspects of creation, sustenance, and destruction – as Trimurty or Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh, that is, Sun-Moon-Earth, while Himself remaining detached as Bhootnath theLord of the Past!
In essence, the entire universe was of course reaized by the 'wise' in reality as Him and His innumerable 'images'!
Kavitha, perhaps now you can visualize Sun as the ‘fire bowl of Trimurty’, and composite Earth as the 'Damru’, with its two hemispheres representing the said man-made hour-glass shaped chambers of the percussion instrument, for North & South Poles, as per 'scientists’ also, undergo change periodically. And earth thus symbolically represents Him as ‘Mahakal Shiva’, the controller of apparent time...
And, coming to the just one pair of the ‘bright’ physical eyes (not two!), the North & South Poles, the points that define the ‘head’ (Arctic region) and 'tail-bone-end' point of the physical body (Antarctic region) of the globe as a whole, represent in essence the eyes of all the animals that are located on either of the two hemispheres, which present to one the innumerable versions that would generally confuse an ordinary man, but not Him or the enlightened one. However, therefore, ‘wise Hindus’ understood MOON as Shiva’s ‘Third Eye’ as the essence of the innumerable eyes of the grand variety of humans, as essence of the animal world, which really matters. Yogis, therefore, attempted to concentrate all energies - that as per design gets distributed at eight different levels in each humn body - at this one point in their heads to attain ‘moksha’ that is ‘liberation from birth and death cycle’…
The mythological story related to ‘Mahabharat’ points out the existence of ‘Mira or Radha’s, or in facr everybody’s Krishna’ (Soul), the representative of ‘Vishnu’ (Supreme soul), within all as He believably, in the ‘battle field of Kurukshetra’, (that is, the apparent clash between opposite thoughts in mind of an ‘imperfect man due to inability to analyze properly and, therefore, indecision, such as ‘to be or not to be’, credited to Shakespeare), told Arjuna that he knew only about his ‘present life’, whereas Krishna, having been attached to him right from the very beginning, knew all about his ‘past also…
With the above as the background, that is, man as the image of God or a model of the universe, it could be visualized why the Yogis decided to reach the Moon, (as reflected outwardly by the race between different nations to do it physically today that is the past), as the essence of the universe within the mind through proper tuning of the mind by attempting to reach ‘zero time & space’ through ‘zero’ that is thoughtless stage – or surrender in Krishna, as a mere witness to His drama to lead Him to the ‘Absolute Truth’ stated in "...Asato ma sadgamaya...".
Yogis, who could manage to empty the energies in the six chambers upto ‘Vishuddi’, or ‘purification’, ‘chakra’, where essence of planet Venus is located at the throat level and - without getting entangled or attached with the ‘material’ that is controlled by Venus, which becomes available to such a devotee - continued further efforts, or ‘Tapasya’, with full faith in the Formless Creator whose essence is located in the head, only they believably got final clearance from inert Shiva (essence of Earth) at ‘Ajna Chakra’, and eventually succeeded in transfer of all energies - contained in seven inferior points - at one superior most point in the ‘shasrara chakra’ attained Supreme Knowledge! Majority of the devotees, however, are indicated to drop out a much lowere levels…
Thus, the all rounders or the 'siddhas' alone believably could apparently experience 'miracles', such as Levitation, walking on surface of water, disapearing from a certain location to reappear at another, maybe distant, location instantaneously, and so on...
For other beings, such as 'inferir animals;, 'life' itself is a 'miracle' one experiences for one life span as a 'human being'...
‘Life’ on earth itself is a ‘miracle’ or ‘adbhut’, that is, wonderful for human beings as secrets of 'life' apparently keep on popping up day after day in front of the eyes of humans through the ‘eyes’ of researching ‘scientists’, be those microscopes or telescopes or 'refined tools' that keep on evolving with passage of time with a view to knowing the highest to the deepest, the biggest to the smallest, macrocosm to microcosm, and so on – a process which is apprently unending, like the proverbial carrot in front of a horse makes it run unendingly...
The ancient ‘Hindus’ however appear to have realized the ‘third eye’ to exist within each human form that one only needs to know the procedure how to utilize it to allow one to know everything about ‘Creation’ that believably is recorded within each, which one seeks outside due to lack of knowledge!
Kavitha.The word "funeral " is not approprite in the context that it is used here.Jauhar is the sacrifice by immolating self of the brave Rajput ladies & funaral rites are performed on the dead bodies.
Joshi uncle.Samidha is the offering made to Agni Hence the word "Sammidheshwar"acquires a different meaning
It is perhaps the ‘third eye’, that is, the essence of our earth’s one and only satellite moon, which believably is concerned with exercise of control on the health of the planet earth - with a view to rendering it immortal as Gangadhar and Chandrashekhara Shiva - and also man as its superior most creation as the model of the universe or ‘image of God’, but apparently having a transitory nature and varying capacities etc, in order to reflect the apparent hierarchy in ‘Nature’ in which all physical forms have the same five elements or ‘panchtatva’ in different proportions to reflect their different appearing exteriors and behaviours…
The ancient ‘Hindus’ therefore appear to have attempted to do in-depth study of the ‘panchtatva’, that is, Sky or space, earth that is dust including sacred Ganga water; Fire or energy; air or breath; Yamuna or relatively polluted water compared to Ganga water, as these are related with human form…
For increasing ‘Fire’ or energy within to develop the state of Laghima or light weight for levitation etc, they give ‘priority to ‘air’, for it is well known that without air life on earth can’t even be imagined, and also no fire on earth can start and grow in intensity. Thus ‘pranayam’ or the process of steady and deep inhalation and slow exhalation of breath, (when one performs Yoga during spare time preferably in ‘Lotus pose’ to reduce energy loss into the environment because of the 'lock’ thus applied), was devised with experience over many years, inspired by observation of recoupment of energy - that gets lost in performance of mental and physical actions - during deep slumber only when breathing naturally remains steady, be it a nap during the day even. That is to say that although sleep during the night was found better, (as it results only in involuntary actions - such as breathing - and, therefore, no conscious thoughts that are compulsorily required for performing actions), however, one could perhaps manage to even quickly snatch some energy with a short ‘power nap’ itself.
The ancient Hindus thus devised ‘meditation’ for whatever spare time was available to the normal house-holder even for improving one’s efficiency and concentration in study, or work, by performing minimum actions that are normally required for a specific task (but distractions result in loss of energy as well as waste of tiem) by regulation of all the ‘five physical senses’, steadily over a long period till one habitually learns to develop detachment from the ‘material world’ even while one isn’t performing the exercise consciously…
Yes, you are right, Dr. Anilji, 'samidha' means wood, or fuel used in lighting a 'sacred fire'...And, ‘fire’ is considered as one of the 'panch-bhoota' that literally means 'Five ghosts' or 'panch-tatva', that is, 'five (immortal) elements' (as indicated in the comment above also) that believably go into the formation of all physical bodies that exist within the infinite universe, with Shiva the composite earth or Mahashiva the solar system as essence of the entire universe, as the overall Lord or Bhootnath, the Lord of the past...Anyway, life was understood as a drama, all about Shiva and His 'images'...
We had earlier also seen elsewhere how the widows of Rajput warriors, killed in battles, used to perform 'Jauhar' or 'Sati' in order to avoid falling into the hands of the victorious enemy, the Moghuls, as per the prevalent practice those days, and therefore considered 'right', just as 'Sati the first consort of Shiva believably had committed suicide by jumping into the 'sacred fire' or 'havan' arranged by her father, King Daksha Prajapati, to which Shiva wasn't invited by him because of the bad company and behaviour of Shiva, and she too was insulted when she came alone to her father's place uninvited...for a wife's place is by her husband's side only...
The 'Hindus' considered the wife as 'ardhangini' or one half (physically weaker) part of her spouse (like a vine that climbs up by winding itself around a support, and without its support it can only creep along the ground) and, therefore, at some stage the practice of 'sati' had become an accepted practice, till after the arrival of the British it got legally abolished…but still at times some such stray cases do occur and get publicised by the media even in the present day Rajasthan (thanks to 'slavery of time', or because of mischievousness of ‘child Krishna’!) for “Truth ever prevails.” That is, 'Satyameva Jayate.'...And Shiva was understood as the 'Truth' or 'Satya'!
Now, if one consciously attempts to remain aware to the 'Truth', to overcome 'Maya', one could see some of the the events apparently happening in the ‘present’ to actually reflect the scenario of the remote past of Shiva - the now apparently perfect earth, which itself is ‘mithya’ or illusory - when ‘child Krishna’, although believably powerful right from the day he was born, had started evolving at the beginning of a Kaliyuga or the ‘dark age’...
Confusion in the minds of an average human being believbly is on account of superimposition of the ‘perfect’ over the progressively ‘imperfect’ models: Vishnu is supposed to have appeared in human form for the first time as ‘Vamanavatar’, or a dwarf. The pundits, therefore, said that when Kaliyuga approaches its last stage (with the knowledge that apparent time is moving backwards), man would become small, which the apparently grown-ups in the ‘present’ normally interpret that dwarfs would be seen all around, while it actually conveys that people in general would lack overall knowledge, just as a child apparently needs to get educated about the overall world till its maturity and till one exists on earth to be able to cope up with the material as well as the spiritual world…the seen and the unseen (energies)...
However, because of the ever maintained hierarchy in'Nature', there still would be seen some people, although in a smaller percentage, who would relatively appear more efficient – as per the saying in Hindi, to the effect, “One eyed rules over the blinds.”
However, the ‘wise’ realized that because of the charactteristic property of each Yuga as per a grand design, Kaliyuga, that actually appears as the last, would reflect the lowest range of 25% to 0% efficiency in humans, compared to 100% to 75% in Satyuga - as models of God, the entire universe - over first 4.32 million years (of a Mahayuga of total duration 43.2 million years, which appear 1080 times during one day in the life of immortal ‘Surya devta’ or Brahma the Sun as one of the aspects of Mahashiva represented by Trimurty, and Brahma therefore doesn’t need temples as our Sun is worshipped directly, by all 'believers' as well as ‘non believers’ directly or indirectly)!
It is because of ‘Maya’, or lack of overall knowledge, that an average ‘believer’ in Kaliyuga although lies with ones ‘six’ body parts prostate in front of, say, Shiva’s idol, that is, he/ she apparently performs ‘shastang pranam’ to Lord Shiva, the Bhootnath represented by the idol, in fact because of ‘Maya’ one is praying to Kartikeya/ Murugan who is believably represented by the numeral ‘6’, and represents (Neelamber Krishna to a north Indian) or planet Venus the controller of the material world alone as Neelkantha Shiva, while the inverted six, that is, numeral ‘9’, the highest in the scale from 0 to 9, represents the Formless Shiva, represented by shivalinga/ Vishnu the Nadbindu, numeral ‘8’ thus representing the physically highest or Peetamber Krishna/ Parvati, the eight-handed Goddess becoming approachable in a transitory human form within the brain - that apparently gets reflected in ‘miraculous powers’ attained by certain rare individuals – as Ganas the representatives of Ganesha the all rounder son of Parvati!
Hi Anilji, Joshi Uncle
I have re-edited the text with that change. What am trying to understand is the connection of Sammidheshwar with Adbhutanat, with the understanding that Samidha means offering to Agni. All this with the representation of Trimurti is not making apparent sense on the face of it. There is obviously something i am missing out entirely.
Fire for sacrifice, fire for offering, fire is arti, fire is an element, fire is the path, fire creates, fire destroys, fire preserves...
Regds
Kavitha
Hi Kavithaji, Dr. Anilji...
In this ever changing physical universe/ earth, it is known that we can’t expect things to remain frozen, like photographs/ paintings as they existed at a certain given point in time, and also remain preserved till eternity, due to inherent characteristic property of material...
We also know that nothing is useless, that is, everything is serving some useful purpose for someone at some point in time. And, it could still serve the same or another purpose at another point of time in future, maybe to some other person(s) even, with certain modifications and/ or attachments. This is called ‘jugard’ in Hindi, a language that apparently is spoken by ‘Hindus’ believably as a crude derivative of a more advanced language, Sanskrit...
However, if the scenario is seen in the reverse order (just as in the short video song, with the title ‘enigma’, meaning anything or anyone puzzling or inexplicable) that perhaps is the correct order as per ‘wiser’ ancient ‘Hindus’, Sanskrit (developed in India, like Latin & Greek in Europe at a certain advanced stage) could perhaps be understood as a language that evolved with passage of time as an essence of the various languages that existed over small regions of ‘India’ inhabited originally by ‘innumerable ‘koopmandooks’ or ‘frogs in the well’ as used for the then ‘specialists’. For the historians indicate how numerous small regions were ruled, each by a different king in ‘India that is Bharat’ who were all the time fighting with each other. And, with the arrival of the British, the administration of a larger overall area of land got consolidated centrally from Calcutta/ New Delhi as the capital of the country, although each King, or Nawab etc at some point in time continued to administer the small region that was under their control, as part of the Commonwealth…
The present day ‘India’ stands truncated, , in east and west, and also with different parties presently forming the Central ruling coalition, and so also in the state of Karnataka (the ‘geographical and cultural meeting point of North and South India’), like a ‘jugard’, and also with the northeastern states apparently disturbed because of the porous and long boundaries of the country, particularly because of some unfriendly neighbours, some of whom themselves are also disturbed, the scenario apparently reflects the so-called ‘churning of the Milky Ocean by Krishna as a representative of Lord Vishnu the Nadbindu’ at the beginning of Creation…
And now add to this mixture the continued ‘big bang’ due to disturbance in the west of India in Gujarat a few years ago, and the latest ‘Nandigram’ episode in the east of India, both resulting in losses of life of ‘innocent’ people and, therefore, the uproar of the masses coinciding with ‘natural loss of life’ and devastation caused to property, due to Sidr, the cyclone that hit Bangladesh, like Krishna’s-sudershan-chakra…
In the Gita Krishna, the apparently beloved of all ‘Hindus’, frankly says that He is an agent of Death, that is Shiva the Destroyer (Earth, understood as ‘Mrityulok’, the place where all life forms appear and disappear periodically) of ‘Hindu Mythology’ is indicated as his Supreme form! Krishna therefore advises one to enjoy life as a spectator (like we enjoy Bollywood, and Hollywood, etc. films)!
All elements in nature have all the three aspects - of creation, sustenance and destruction that is, in fact, transformation! Nothng thus ever gets 'destroyed' as such!
“Om, namah Shivaya!”
The concept of ghosts and their Lord, Bhootnath Shiva, who believably is related with the ‘Truth’, is interestingly communicated in the stories, originally in Sanskrit, of the legendary King of Ujjain, Vikramaditya, who even as a child believably used to give absolutely fair judgments seated on his throne, which was lost after his death, and later found by Raja Bhoj, another famous king of Dhar, centuries later. His attempts to occupy Vikramaditya’s throne, which had 25 statues of female forms and who challenged him to prove that he was as wise and as magnanimous as Vikrmadirya is believably contained in 32 stories, called Sinhasan Batteesee. He was finally allowed to occupy it although he could not reply to any of the quizzes - mainly because of his simplicity (a reflection of ‘Simple God’, the Bholanath Shiva?!)
In the story of ‘Betal Pachisi’, whenever King Vikramaditya, who was famous for his correct judgment, spoke the ‘Truth’ related to a story being told to him by the Betal (Vampire) for his pastime, the Betal, would fly away to get re-attached to the tree from where it was being carried on his shoulder by the king – again and again. For the condition put forward by Betal was that if the king failed to give correct judgment, his head would be broken, and if spoke, it would fly off to the same tree! Vikramaditya believably couldn’t reply to the 25the question…
These stories perhaps communicate the pirpose of the Formless Creator merely for His pastime...However, Krishna, in the Gita, says to the effect that although now there is notning new for Him to find in all the three 'loks', that is, Sky, surface of earth, and underground, He continues to work because if He stopped it would mean destruction of all that He has created, for the universal cycle is continuing to function eternally as it is attached with Him, with all the constituents copying Him in sone hierarchical order. And, He would then become the destroyer, which isn't His function!
Kavitha, I am sorry that on review I find that I have mentioned 25 statues in Vikramaditya's thr0ne, in place of 32 female figures who tell Raja Bhoj 32 aspects of Vikramaditya compared to all of which Raja Bhoj accepts his inferiority...
Kavitha, The example of Vikramaditya came to my mind because ‘Vikram’ means valor as you have associated it with the Rajputs of Mewar too…
And, ‘Aditya’ refers to our Sun the number one Heavenly Body, as the source of dirct and indirect energy, (‘fire’, in the words of ancient, that is, ‘advanced Hindus’), on ‘our planet earth’ for sustenance of life to quench the 'jathragni' that is fire in the belly expressed as hunger in animals; and also to act as the main driving force, (like a powerful King/ a railway engine), that keeps the Solar system members, each one of them, move around it in their defined respective orbits – but not rigidly on one and the same path, and allowing them a certain liberty within a range of maximum and minimum distance from it by following an elliptical orbit, just as a river, during its course on earth from its origin to the sea, is provided liberty to meander at times…
The harmful rays that emanate from our Sun, as per design for sustenance of life forms on earth, are kept away from the surface of earth with the help of Ozone gas in the atmosphere, which is of course yet another form of life-giving Oxygen itself...
However, if damage to Ozone layer takes place, leading to holes in the layer, these can result in everything getting burnt, which the mythological stories depict as opening of His ‘Third Eye’ by Shiva to burn out Bhasmasur or Kamadev even…In tretayuga, this feature is depicted through Lord Rama (model of Sun) asking Lakshamana (model of earth) to hand HIm the arrow that could dry up the seawater!
Kavitha, As ‘I’ often says, Hindu Mythology isn’t easy to digest by all and sundry! The deeper one goes, the more and better pearls become available!
Kavitha,Just a wild guesswork!May be the original adbhootnath was renamed as Samideshwar ater the sacrifice
Adbhut also means ‘apoorva’ or that which doesn’t have a beginning, that is, none existing before it, or somethong or someone unique that is an enigma. The formless Creator is 'adbhut' that is ‘vichitra’ also, or strange, for to the best of human knowledge, thanks to the inefficient five senses, as it is well known, every object or person is observed - through the ‘pair of eyes’ given to man - to have a beginning or a Mother. Thus it is beyond human imagination to reach the Creator, who is understood to be some form of energy or ‘fire’ (Parmatma), which could be considered closest possibly to red coloured flame of the ‘fire’ that ‘ancient’ man was also possibly very much used to handling in day-to-day life as it is depicted through 'Ma' Kali’s tongue that believably resides in Shiva’s heart or earth’s core and is seen ‘naturally’ at the time of eruption of an active volcano ‘outside its mouth’ that got man to symbolically represent unseen Shiva, the immortal energy through ‘Shivaling’…thus highlighted eyes of Adbhutnath convey to man the need to activate the dormant ‘Third eye’ existing within human form too!!!
The ancient Yogis appear to have done that, that is, they withdrew to the Himalayan caves, far away from the madenning crowd, their noise and interferrence inevitable in the apparently 'normal' day-to-day life, as unique specimens. The closeness to 'Nature' in its purest form obviously alone helped bring transformation in their thought plane...
Words, in any human language, can't explain the feeling when human eyes are exposed to, say, Himalayan forests and its colourful flora and fauna itself...one now hears 'Nature' speak while oneself becomes the mute wonderstruck audience!
Even In the ‘present days’, in ‘urban concrete jungles’ also, mixis have become an appliance as necessity and not luxury as the ‘natives’ in ancient ‘spiritual India’ believed it, and, therefore, the essential saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention”...
However, thus even today one knows the 'Truth' that was believably known to ‘Krishna’ also, that is, cream rises up when churned, leaving behind believably unimportant items, although they too are useful for some, as nothing is unimportant, on the planet earth at least...
The Yogis, that is, those who resided in lower altitude plains at one time and didn’t like ‘slavery of time’, also similarly rose up and attained, at least physically, a higher altitude and, apparently naturally, experienced uplift in their 'mental and spiritual levels' also, thus indicating similar behaviiour of ‘Trimurty’...which is observed by the ‘pair of human eyes’ even in the roots, stems, and leaves - with ‘fruits’ as the desired end product by man, which in fact is surplus energy for the tree, like surplus money with the ‘rich’…
However, due to mischievousness of Krishna, the ‘west’ or Neelamber Krishna conveyed, “Fools part with their money soon!” Thus, even Rama, Buddha, Mira Bai, Gandhi etc are all foolish in the ‘eyes of the west’, while the ‘east’ had all along believed them to be their Gods!
Wonderful isn't it?
Kavitha, Dr Anil, Here is another reaction to a newspaper article.
Land of socialism, Tendulkar and tigers by Shri Shashi Tharoor (STOI) states, in beautiful words, what is perhaps already known to the ‘literates’ of ‘India’ that is ‘Bharat’...
However, to a ‘Hindu by thought’, like some ‘foolish born Hindus’ even today,mention of ‘S’ for Saraswati, the Goddess of Knowledge, is found missing – like the legendary River Saraswati that is believed to have gone underground and hence the apparent all round ‘foolish’ human acts in Kaliyuga, the believable age of darkness/ ignorance in humans. And also like the generally unseen underground root of a tree to an average man, expressed in the saying, “Out of sight/ Out of mind”, despite knowledge of perhaps the most important role as one of the components of the system the roots play to keep it attached to similarly taken for granted earth – and become its important part by keeping dust or earth particles united despite the apparent diversity to provide land for various uses by the animal world…and so on...
I would like to give the background in response to the conversations through messages as given below, to perhaps decide why the ancient Hindus advised reaching the self, an image of Shiva Himself, (as in , "Shivoham/ Tat twam asi"!) rather than attempting to control other inferior soul(s), which anyway are being exploited as ‘inferior souls’ with forms because of thehierarchy,,,
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17 Nov 07, 11:19
bhairav: hi im a nath dik**** boy of 22.wish to know about a shamshan sadhna!
17 Nov 07, 11:20
bhairav: wanna do shamshan sadhna!
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17 Nov 07, 14:50
Kavitha: Hi Bhairav, shamshan sadhana is not very easy to do and requires initiation, not instructions off the internet. There are not many ppl left who do it. its the worship of Shamshan Tara, Kali
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The ‘ancient’, that is, in fact ‘highly advanced’, ‘Hindus’ had realized earth and its inhabitants as ‘mithya’ that is illusory images, like the make believe world of cinema as its reflection - where projection is made on a ‘silver screen’ of a film that was shot in the relative ‘past’, and is seen in relative ‘future’, as many times as it lasts, for pastime cum entertainment of spectators who might even have not been born when the original version of the film was first shot, and maybe because of its popularity at that time the same story with certain modifications, and with an altogether different cast, the film might have been shot again, and again later...
The ‘actual present’, therefore, seen through the eyes of the unborn and unending Formless Creator, can be imagined as Bhootnath, that is, the ‘perfect’ Formless Shiva at the centre of the original location of earth and various other bhootas’ or ghosts, that is, spirits floating within the infinite space - (like their reflection - apparently experienced by apparent man - as dreams, or day-dreams) - all wanting to come closer to Bhootnath and get attached with Him, or/ rather it, as their ultimate goal…
As per the ‘Hindu belief’, reading the mythological stories etc between lines, in the beginning there was only one ghost or spirit without body (the unborn and the unending) that divided into innumerable spirits, each of which, with passage of time went on acquiring different and innumerable animal forms, through different order, to eventually acquire the human form, apparently after the spirit had passed through a variety of minimum 8.4 million ‘inferior animal’ forms. However, because of the physical formation being of a hierarchical nature, the final and most evolved form of Earth/ Shiva could be attained by only one soul at a particular point in time, which is indicated as the end of Satyuga or the age of ‘Truth’, when the ‘True image’ of the Formless Crator was apparently attained ina fashion of tehapex of a pyramid…
Thus in this process lots of pemutations and combinations would have taken place in the past for stages of different duration of time, called appropriately as Kali-yuga that is the dark age’, followed by Dwaper-yuga of twice the duration of Kali-yuga, further followed by Treta-yuga of thrice the duration of Kali-yuga, and finally Sat-yuga, four times the durtin of Kali-yuga and also the end of the apparent search of the physical form as satva or essence of the Formless…
Bhootnath is really Adbhutnath!
Speaking of wonder, that is, ‘adbhut’, or ‘Adbhutnath Shiva’, the essence of ‘Hindu belief’, which states existence of omnipotent and omnipresent God in each and every particle, indicates innumerable ‘souls’ in the ‘present’, each viewing its ‘past’ at any particular instant of time, as if within a particular ‘physical form’, vis-Ã -vis other souls, who also similarly perceive themselves associated with some other different forms - somewhere within the infinite void of the universe…
The process is supposed to be continuing eternally, after ‘perfection’ was achieved in the art of projection of the drama by the Formless Creator or Supreme Soul, within His field of infinite influence, who alone remains aware of the truth, He being related with ‘zero time’ and space that believably is indicated as the centre of our planet, now illusory earth alongwith the illusory images it holds within the three worlds (atmosphere, on the surface, and underground), as they existed in perhaps the 1080th Mahayuga’s last stage of 432,000 years - called ‘Kaliyuga’, which believably marks the approach of the end of Brahma’s (Sun’s) day of 4.32 billion years, (if rounded figure of 1000 cycles of Mahayuga is considered), otherwise around 4.6 billion years (if 1080 cycles is considered as the logical cycles to cover 360 degrees of space and 3 aspects of Bhootnath Shiva), which also happens to be the present estimated age of our solar system...
Brahma's day believably is followed by His night of an equal duration as His day, (that is, the time for resting the soul associated with our illusory Sun), during which all the souls believably remain frozen – each to restart from the same position when immortal Brahma’s new day starts...
Now, the mythology indicates that after having achieved perfection when Shiva (the soul associated with composite ‘earth’) retired, that is went into Yognidra (and thus His soul remotely kept the overall control in His hands as Trimurty), the charge of the drama was given to (the soul associated with Moon, representing ‘water’ and metal gold) Parvati, His consort, and her favourite all rounder son Ganesha (soul associated with planet Mars, representing ‘air’, as the ‘Lord of fire and war’) , and His physically powerful son Kartikeya (soul related with planet Venus, representing metal iron and hard rocks) to take care of their security, assisted by essences, or souls, of other selected members of the solar system, such as Infra-red and Ultra-violet rays, (function related with the soul associated with their leader, Sun, that is Brahma representing ‘fire’ also being retained with Trimurty)…
There is a saying in Hindi, “Haathi ke pere mein sabka pere”, that is, impressions of the feet of all other animals fit within the foot of the elephant, and interestingly Ganesha is depicted to have an elephant head over his big torso, indicated by his being called ‘Lambodar’, that is, one who has a big belly!
The soul associated with Ganesha (evolved planet Mars) in Sat-yuga, when it was still not completely evolved in Treta-yuga, was believably reflected by Hanuman, who could fly in air, and therefore called ‘son of air’ or ‘pavan putra’. And also Ganesha-like trouble shooter and therefore called ‘sankat mochan’ just as Ganesha was called ‘vighan harta’. And, he helped the soul associated with yet to be fully evolved Sun, that is Lord Rama, bring back formless or ‘vaidehhi’ Sita (the ‘imperfect’ soul associated with Moon during that era) and therefore indicating the importance that is the VIP status given to the soul or essence of planet Mars, (believably housed at the tail-bone-end in humans called Mooladhar or base) right from the very beginning of evolution by the soul related with the essence of our Milky Way Galaxy, that is Krishna/ Kali in the heart of Shiva that is Earth (reflected by human tongue within the void of the human mouth, that has 32 teeth, perhaps thus reflecting the said 32 statues in the legendary King Vikrmaditya’s throne in the stories related with the valor of Vikramaditya in ‘Sinhasan batteesee’, which reflects the believable mischievousness of Krishna, as the representative of Adbhutnath)!
It is interesting that i have seen only two references in great detail about the inside of this temple. Most travel guides just mention the temple and move on. The reference to Adbhutanat Shiva is made in am Art History book by Shivarammurti and on the net its Shunya.net where they actually took the photograph of this form.
Its possible the temple got renamed later... but not too many people seem to mention the name of this form of Trimurthi which is what intrigued me about this temple.
The idol is wooden and has withstood time.It was renovated recently but it still seems to carry the original splendour
Regds
Kavitha
Kavitha, the exterior form believably is only ‘indrajal’ or apparent illusion created by Indra that is our Sun, with the seven colours and various forms of energy that it hides within itself, or Brahma, the creative part of Trimurty Shiva, who doesn’t seem to find favour independently with ‘wise Hindus’, but only with Trimurty the three aspects of Mahakal Shiva only - as the'fire bowl' of Adbhutnath!
They, therefore, advised every imperfect image to reach Shiva the ‘Truth’ or ‘satva’ the essence, or soul, within the self!
And, they believably exclaimed “Shivoham (!),” that is, myself, I am the one and only Creator, who alone exists in the entire universe with my own images - to fool me, or maybe entertain me, or maybe to lead me to my true one and the only mother represented by MOON in physical form!
And, therefore, we should be proud to be a ‘Hindu’ - the son of Indu. Or, maybe Indu myself! That is what perhaps is indicated by characters from yto time, such as Surdas, Mira Bai etc. acting virtually like lunatics, believably thanks to Krishna!
When I had visited the relatively less frequented Nabagraha Temple (compared to Kamakhya Temple), located in Guwahati, Assam, in the year ’83 or so for the first and perhaps the last time, the priest there informed me that the temple had been personally built by Brahma Himself, when He had first arrived at that place! He found the location on a hill-top, on one of the banks of River Brahmaputra, suitable for it and, therefore, had established in that area a city, called ‘Pragjyotishpur’, that is, the ‘ancient city of Astrologers’!
Obviously, reading the expression of surprise cum disbelief on my face, he corrected himself, that although the temple had been renovated umpteen numbers of times thereafter, its location had always remained the same…
The above-stated is the accepted practice in ‘Sanatan’ Dharma’, which now, apparently due to ‘western influence’ believably because of mischievous Krishna, has come to be known popularly as ‘Hinduism’ and given a lower status among various other ‘religions’ due to the characteristic property of time, which the ‘wise Hindus’, in a way, had apparently already anticipated in the ‘advanced past’ that is, in fact, ‘future within the past of the Formless Creator’, the Bhootnath who became Adbhutnath, by the end of Sat-yuga the final stage of achieving ‘perfection’, or infinity, starting from zero, as evolved Mahakal the controller of apparent time/ ‘Trimurty Shiva’, which in the ‘present’ or Kaliyuga, is believably as a projection of the 'original age of darkness’ when our Sun, and also the solar system whose ‘images’ we apparently get to see today through human forms, were yet to be born!
The phenomenon could perhaps be visualized with the images of perfect immortal earth, as part of the infinite universe in the background, in the foreground of which there is confusion and imperfection seen in the foreground among humans! Such as confusion over signing the Nuke Deal between India and the USA, while in the background innumerable stars, including our own Sun's core, apparently are experiencing explosions of trillions of Hydrogen Bombs per second and yet life on earth continues unharmed - believably thanks to the ozone layer around our earth's atmosphere - perhaps as part of a grand design by a Supreme Being billions of years ago! The 'wiser Hindus' apparently couldn't reach the time when the 'Big Bang' apparently began for teh first time!!!
A person who himself or herself is happy can alone give happiness to others too without any material exchange taking place between them – maybe just a smile could suffice…
’God’, the Formless Creator with three aspects, symbolically represented by the three-letter-word, is generally believed ever to remain in a state of ‘eternal bliss’, and therefore He was believed – just as perennial River Ganga is the source of ‘pure and safe water’ to quench one’s thirst - the one and only source of happiness. And, in exceptional cases, God was considered as the only source of possible ‘eternal bliss’ if one could attach oneself with Him – and that was expressed as the purpose of human life by ‘wise ancients’!
As a reflection thereof, for visualization of the phenomenon in terms of ‘material’ to a certain extent, it is well known that one who has material or money needed by other(s) too only can give material/ money to the other needy…
It’s a different matter altogether what the receipient does with the material or money thus received...
One might become devoted to the donor all through the rest of one's life - as the generally expected behaviour…like any dog believably 'naturally' acts as if by design - but not generality of humans…perhaps also 'naturaly'...
However, the donor (inferior, in human form compared to God) doesn’t have a control over the behaviour of the receipient of the charity – it might increase his or her greed, which is considered to act like ‘fire’ that can continue to consume any amount of material, like fuel added to fire only increases the intensity of fire…and that might become a source of unhappiness to the donor at a certain stage, if the receipient habitually starts approaching the donor again, and yet again…
If material is surplus with the donor and also there is an assured regular inflow, to always result in the surplus being maintained, there would perhaps be no problem in one giving some money or material as ‘charity’ from time to time…
However, in exceptional cases, one might still give whatever one has with him, originally intended for his own use. It would then be called ‘sacrifice’…the story of King Harishchandra indicates him as a role model in the eyes of God!
‘Sati pratha’, or ‘sacrifice of the natural material possession of the soul', although believably illegal, could still be seen being performed even today, but not recognised as such by an average man – say in the act of self immolation/ blowing oneself up, etc for some cause, or believable ‘burning issue’, that may even be seen in the form of 'churning' or agitation by a mob of apparent ‘lunatics’, or in the form of wars between different countries, who normally apparently act rationally as it is expected of ‘civilized humans’…only to become apparently wiser after the events, and to repeat the same acts yet again! Krishna explained it ‘due to lack of overall knowledge’ - and as 'Maya' or illusion created by Him, and which He alone can cure, as Mira Bai understood Krishna as the doctor that resides within each!
Although it is the Formless 'Nadbindu', the 'Karunanidhi' that is the ocean of kindness and love, the believable beginning and end of the physcial universe, as the real ruler of the universe (as Bhootnath or Vishnu – each given innumerable names, like ‘calling rose by any other name’ doesn’t result in any change in the beautiful look and also the sweet fragrance of the said flower), however, it is ‘Yogiraja Krishna’, the ruler or central character in our Milky Way Galaxy, with his many apparent faults in human form, who remains the proxy ruler of the animal world in so far as ‘imperfect’ animal forms, including humans - during the intermediate stages of evolution - are concerned…
‘Krishna’ was realized as the ‘hero’ who played innumerable roles in various physical forms, including animal forms, during the intermediate stages of evolution, with his Rose-plant-like roots in Nadbindu, immortal earth-like source of infinite and unending energy, and eventually reaching the desired beautiful fragrant flower, but with thorny stem to reflect the truth of life - of existence of opposites - but overall ‘perfection’ in physical form too, as ‘Trimurty Shiva’, that reflects the three aspects that go into the believable drama, or ‘Krishna-leela’…that is actually being seen by the Producer, Bhootnath or Adbhutnath, again and again, apparently through innumerable pairs of eyes (as ‘His Own images’ in the past) and yet again believably unendingly, like a wonderfully outstanding film – that would ever remain mind-boggling to the ‘common man’, like tricks performed by a magician’ are!
Kavitha, In my walk-a-talk-like journey, in so far ‘I’ in ‘me’, or His image I call myself, (like in the Doris Day’s song with the opening line, “Do (doe) a deer, a female deer/ re (ray) a drop of golden sun/ me a name I call myself/ fa (far) a long long way to run…”), is concerned, with the knowledge that the drama is a long distance run, that is, it is eternal, I believe we are trying together to search out our common origin, burning in ‘sacred fire’ provided by Brahma the ‘fire ball’ of Adbhutnath (the funeral pyre as its model) all ‘images’, as ‘samidha’ or fuel, which we believe couldn’t possibly be that what we look for jointly, as long as ‘I’ finds myself useful!
Harishchandra, the ‘satyawadi’, or Truth speaking King (like Shiva/ Yudhister) had virtually ended up as an assistant in a crematorium -the believable location from where Shiva/ Earth gets ash to apply to His body!
It is because of ‘Maya’ or ‘slavery of time’ that we believe 'fire' to always burn objects or persons. However, we perhaps know also that it is the controlled ‘fire’ or energy that was used for preservation of life-energy or soul within their Pharaoh’s dead body, using a Pyramid shaped masonry structure as a tomb, built by the’advanced’ Egyptians in the ‘past’ that as per ‘Hindu belief’ was, in fact, the projection of the ‘future’ in the ‘past’ of Shiva, when He was just evolving...
The phenomenon can be observed from the Vimanas that exist since time immemorial in Hindu Temples for raising the level of the life-energy, or soul, within ‘imperfect’ live individuals, ordinary persons - with their souls at a comparatively lower level (compared to Shiva the Sammidheswar) - who visited the inside of the temples, for worship of their deity installed inside the garbha-griha with mind and heart surrendered in perfect Shiva (who like them once upon a time was also imperfect and had believably resided within all physical forms, but at some lower levels, and, therefore, required to have no malice towards none) and thus even unknowingly getting benefited gradually over time in their life because of the controlled life-giving fire or sunlight that surrounds them for whatever time they could spare for teh ritual...
In the ‘present’, the people in the northern hemisphere in ‘east’ are apparently facing North but are looking towards the ‘west’ for the ‘material’ they looks more on that side, while the people in the ‘west’ are looking towards the ‘east’ for the missing ‘spirituality’ there (for “Grass is greener on the other side”, or in Hindi, to the effect, “Distant drums sound sweeter”)...
And thus all individuals today apparently have developed a crick in their neck - the location where 'Shukracharya' (essence of planet Venus) the Guru of Rakshashas is housed that acts as a hurdle for the soul to rise to the head, the eventual goal for attaining Supreme Knowledge by humans, with which physical Shiva apparently had started His journey downwards, with other inferior souls joining Him - as the Dandi-like march towards the sea - as the crowd apparently swelled like a river, all apparently proceeding ahead to seek the origin of all physical forms, (from where the journey had apparently started), with a view to proceed further to seek Vishnu the Nadbindu’s origin that is the ocean-like root of all physical forms - however, to get lost there, and therefore start again, once more, as reflected by the unending water-cycle, created beween them by Sun-Moon and, of course, Earth!
Although today the present day astronomers find our Sun as the main driving force in our solar system, the wise ancient Hindu Astronomers indicated our composite planet Earth as the centre of the universe…and they, in the Gita, indicate apparently through the divine eyes or ‘divya chakshu’ given by Krishna (model of still evolving centre of our Milky Way Galaxy in Dwaper-yuga) to Arjuna (the model of our similarly imperfect Sun at that stage) to realize earth as the superior most form of Krishna!
Also, in the present it is believed that the lone satellite of earth, that is, moon, originally evolved from the earth-moon itself, which conforms to the Hindu mythological belief about Shiva being Ardhanarishwar (Androgenous God) in the beginning, with Kali the apparnt destructive force residing in His heart, and Sati as His original consort committing suicide in ‘sacred fire’ (alluding to a volcanic eruption), such that He subsequently married Parvati the daughter of the Himalayas - who herself was yet another form of Sati - in the interest of life on earth…
Now, in order to be able to visualize Krishna, as it is already known to present day astrophysicists, a star is virtually a ball of Hydrogen that is undergoing a chain reaction within its core that results in production of inert Helium gas that forms its outer cover, that is, 'garment', alongwith release of tremendous amount of energy, (due to the reaction being exothermic), in to the dark space within which it is contained. The process therefore is believed to go on naturally till the stock of Hydrogen would last…
Also, a star continues to retain its fire-ball-like form because of balance between its gravitational force and the radial pressure exerted by its contents...
It is reportedly observed that a massive star, which has its mass greater than 5 times the mass of our sun, towards its last stage swells due to weakening of the gravitational force, and reaches a ‘Red Giant’ stage, till at some stage it explodes due to the higher radial pressure, and the whole debris then gets scattered in the surrounding space...
However, due to release of radial pressure and, therefore, gravitational force then becoming effective, the debris begins to implode, resulting in generation of heat or ‘fire’… The process continues indefinitely till almost the whole material gets consumed and pure super gravity Black Hole is born (perhaps indicating it as the physical form of the Formless)…
Its presence in space is now felt from inference, that is, when stars, till then visible from earth, begin to disappear within the Black Hole, which because of its super gravity doesn’t permit even light to escape…and such a Heavenly Body is believed to exist at the centre of our galaxy…and also within each human being too as per ‘Hindus’!
With the above as the present day knowledge as the background, it is interesting to note that ‘Black’ means ‘Krishna’ in Sanskrit. And, Krishna, the cowboy of Hindu mythology was popularly called ‘sudershan-chakra dhari’, that is the ‘holder of a beautiful wheel’ as His weapon – and our galaxy of trillions of stars, each as the source of milk-like white light that spin around its centre, is called the ‘Milky Way Galaxy’, which is disc shaped in appearance, thick at the centre and thin towards the edges…and our Solar system lies near to its outer periphery, just as cream, as the essence of milk, also moves outwards when milk is churned in a disc shaped centrifuge…
The 'Hindus' believed human structure to be formed of the various permutations and combinations of essences of selected members of the solar system from Sun to Saturn!
Human form itself thus is a wonderful specimen, a miracle – believably an ‘image of God’ itself, remaining unaware of the 'Truth’ life after life and wandering all over the world like the ‘kasturi mriga’, the Himalayan deer, that isn’t aware that the source of fragrance he continues to receive is in fact under its tail, that is, its ‘mooladhar’, which in humans has perhaps become obsolete due to ‘Time’ just as the magnetic fluid present in pigeons and dolphins at their ‘Ajna Chakra’ has become obsolete in human form today and needs to be activated to reach the 'Absolute Truth' or the Formless Creator!
It is because of the believable Truth’s prevalence in ‘Nature’ that ‘Hindus by thought’, at any time, by ‘reading between lines’ the ‘Nature’, apparently managed to activate the said ‘Divine, or Third Eye’...
For example, the ‘wise Hindus’ at around 1st BCE, the time that is generally correalated with the legendary king of Ujjain (in Narmada valley) attributed to the said king, Vikramaditya, the stories of ‘Sinhasan Batteesee’, the 32 statues in his throne, which we realized could in fact be alluding to 32 teeth within human mouth (and similarly 32 numbers in the mouth of the spouse - as the other one half - makes the total to 64, the said 64 Yoginis)!
Similarly, one could now perhaps realize the 25 stories related with ‘Betal Pachcheesee’ narrated to him by the Vampire he wanted to control - out of which he could reply only to the first 24 - to indicate the 8 chakras (the number associated with 'Krishna') and three aspects of each chakra associated with each member of the solar system, from Sun to planet Jupiter, while Saturn believably makes the 25th that represents the Formless Creator as the witness of the drama and the ‘decision maker’ to grant ‘moksha’ or ‘liberation from birth & death cycle to a particular individual/ individuals!
Sometimes, even my newspaper in its coloumn ‘Sacred space’, for formality sake, gives some interesting quotations, such as the one given below (on 11/21) under the title ‘Last Words’, from dying Ravana to Rama.
“Things that are bad for you seduce you easily; you run towards them impatiently. But things that are actually good for you fail to attract you; you shun them creatively, finding powerful excuses to justify your procrastination. That is why i was impatient to abduct Sita, but avoided meeting you.”
However, due to ‘lack of overall knowledge’ in Kaliyuga, one perhaps doesn’t come to realize that ‘Ramleela’, or drama related with Treta-yuga’s characters, in reality, describes only the third stage of evolutionary process, where Ravana represents essence of planet Venus, Rama the essence of Sun, and Sita (Rama’s wife) the essence of Moon…
"Knowledge is wealth". In order to reach the Supreme Knowledge, or the ‘real Gold’, represented by Sita at his head level, the energy at the Solar plexus level in the still imperfect character, Rama, was required to cross the barrier created by Ravana (Venus) at his throat level. And, for doing that he had to overcome temptation created by material, such as Gold, symbolically represented by the throne, golden deer, etc...
And, even when he returned victorious, with Sita in human form, he had to wait for the fourth and the final stage in the evolutionary process, for Shiva-Parvati to represent the desired goal of attainining immortality…as the ‘true image’ of the Formless Creator and His three aspects…through essences of the Trimurty Shiva, reflected by Sun-Moon-Earth!
Historians indicate around 6th cen BCE as the period that marked the end of the ‘Vedic Era’, up to which time ‘mantras’, that is, utterance of certain words in musical notes in certain order together with worship of ‘sacred fire’, that is performing rituals related with ‘havans’ where ‘samidha’, that is, wood, ghee (clarified fat made from cow’s milk), and various other natural ingredients were offered by sages for various goals in mind...
The practice was apparently perfected and mantras were believably used for performing wonders at any time and any place - utilizing just the 'fire' or energy available within one's form - such as levitation etc…
They apparently could make it rain from much more potent water - for achieving higher yields of food-grains etc - apparently available in some other astral world whenever and wherever it was needed for irrigation purposes.
The ‘Aryans’ apparently, therefore, did not believe in storing water behind dams and barrages for irrigation etc.
The ‘present day generation' blames their elders and ancestors for not passing on the knowledge they had perfected, believably due to lack of knowledge that although the Supreme knowledge is locked up within chakras, it is firmly locked up there by Mahakal Shiva, the controller of ‘Time’ and events related therewith associated with the particular Yuga or era…
The ‘present’, believably being Kali-yuga or ‘dark age’ or the era of darkness and ignorance, even relatively inferior achievements are enjoyed as ‘miracles’, such as man-made Television Network/ Mobile phones etc that through the eyes of the ancient ‘Hindu Yogis’ is relatively a child’s job!
However, the primary goal of humans believably being to realize the self as an image of God itself, although apparently inferior because it is a reflection of Trimurty Shiva Himself at some stage in His Past when He Himself was ‘imperfect’!
Thus one was advised through ‘wiser Hindus’ to remain contended with that knowledge, and thus “Shivoham” was the best Mantra!
There is yet another saying, a prayer, in Sanskrit, that was expressed because of apparent hierarchy (through just one pair of human eyes) in physical ‘Nature’, in all its aspects, to convey the importance of Guru the Superior, “Guru Brahma/ Guru Vishnu/ Guru Devo Mahesh/ Guru Sakshat Param Brahma/ Tasmai Shri guruve namah”, that actually indicates the need for all humans to ever remain humble, for example, an apparently powerful most person in some particular region, and proud of it, otherwise is likely to meet someone, someday, his Guru who might prove more powerful than him, as Ram/ Ravana leela also reflects it (for “Pride hath a fall.” And in Hindi, the gamblers understood it as, "Nehle per dehla", that is, '10' over '9'!)…
And, one was advised to remain conscious of the one and only Formless, Supreme Being, or Param Brahma, who was in fact apparently realized by Yogis as the superior most of all – ‘physical’ or ‘spiritual’…as the apex of a pyramid, similarly reflected by Mount Kailash as the abode of the Divine family, Shiva-Parvati-Kartikeya-Ganesha (reflected by colours, Green-Yellow-Blue-Orange) the joint Provider of life-giving ‘panch-tatva’, for ‘jugard’ or ‘Yogarth’, that is, for the sake of Yoga or union, like the ‘havan samagri’ or ‘samidha’ offered to fire to reach the ‘essence’ or ‘satva’, the Sammidheshwar or Adnbutnath Shiva…"All paths lead to Shiva the Bhootnath!"
It’s well known that in the childhood a 'normal person' has a good observation power but a poor analytical power. While, after one attains physical and mental maturity the capabilities apparently reverse, that is, the observation power diminishes with the enhancement in the analytical power…which, in a way perhaps naturally, becomes the root cause of the ‘Maya’ or illusion due mainly to inefficient physical senses, perhaps as per a ‘grand design’ by ‘Nature’, in the words of ‘non believers’, and the Formless Creator in the words of the ancient ‘wise’ – both in the east as well as the west...
The ‘wise Hindus’ apparently, however, continued to reach greater depths, but expressed their findings in code language, in innumerable stories, puranas, the four Vedas, and so on in different languages even. And, therefore, the advice to everyone to ‘read between lines’ to reach at the essence, that is, ‘Truth’…and only exceptional people given extraordinary capacity to reach the ‘Absolute Truth’…all of course as part of a grand design…
Perhaps the most wonderful phenomenon apparent in life on earth is appearance of dreams, in al rich as well as the poor, and even in 'inferior animals'!
Perhaps therefore, some wise ancients appear to suggest the Absolute Truth of the entire universe in the 'present' as dream of the Formless Creator!
Kavitha, here is another reaction to s newspaper article.
Dear Sirs,
This refers to the SECOND OPINION article, Big Ben, Deve Gowda and other factoids, by Shri Jug Suraiaya (22/11).
A nice presentation of the apparent present day Indian scenario as it is seen superficially, and therefore not answering why?.
I would try to be as brief as possible and therefore might appear a bit sketchy, for 'Hindu thoughts' aren't understood today - due mainly to 'lack of time' and other 'burning issues' which are mainly due to 'slavery of time' :-)
The sound of any bell could be associated with the planet Saturn, as it's now known - via USA the materially most advanced 'western' country - that the said planet emits a mixture of sound that also includes a bell, besides the sounds of chirping of birds and beats of drums...and 'factoid' was called 'Maya' or illusion apparently created by the Formless Creator, (Vishnu shown having a conch-shell as the instrument for relating Him with the primordial sound 'OM', expressed today as "Big Bang' and therefore appropriate name for the bell, 'Big Ben'), who is represented by double colour planet Saturn in physical form...
It could, therefore, perhaps be concluded that 'ancient Hindus' had known about the said 'Truth' also in the believable 'remote past', reflected at least through the bell as an essential part of any 'Hindu' temple, and Saturn/ blue colour is believed as the ruler of the 'direction west'...although because of mischievous Neelamber Krishna, who wears blue garments and, so also Kartikeya the favourite son of Shiva-Parvati is associated with blue colour through his vehicle, Peacock, our 'National Bird'...That is to say, in reality the 'Dark Sky' appears blue during the day when 'earth' is ruled by Sun, the source of 'fire' as well as white light, that hides within its form a variety of energies and all the colours of the visible spectrum; and it regains its true colour in the night when mysterious Moon rules over the earth...
And Krishna. like planet Jupiter, himself is believed as a relatively smaller 'sudershan-chakra dhari', as representative of the double colour planet Saturn (representing 'sudershan-chakra dhari Vishnu' as the 'decision maker', who in human form is represented by Ganesha (as a model of planet Mars), the favourite son of Parvati (model of Moon, the plaything of "Peetamber Krishna" the cowboy of Mathura & Brindaban, and the ruler of 'North') who apparently had the blessings of both Ma Kali (representing central core of earth as the essence of centre of our galaxy, and direction East) and Ma Gouri (representing Sun, the ruler of South)...and acted as the link between man and God...
The partition of 'India' in 1947 had already reulted in truncation of the 'Tiger' that 'India' was during the British regime - obliged to share the head with Pakistan, and the tail with Bangladesh (since 1971)...Now since '02 west India, that is, after 'Godhra fire' Gujarat was already disturbed, because of 'minority', and the recent Nandigram episode also has brought the east India under 'fire', with its sparks reaching 'Kali's Kolkata' the heart of Bengal, from where she rules with her 'red tongue', reflected by 'red flag' of the ruling party, for the last 30 years...
Now, Gowdas, father & son (reflecting Shiva-Kartikeya), in Karnataka, the 'geographical and cultural meeting point of North and South India' have apparently managed to bring about the symbolic disconnection between head and tail of 'India' that symbolically represented the 'eight-handed Durga seated on her Tiger' - perhaps reflecting the time for Brahma the Sun to retire - evening reflected by retirement of British from 'India' (for "Coming events cast their shadows in advance.")!
As we have seen earlier also many times, in the Gita there is mention of Man as an inverted tree…
And, as perhaps everyone knows, everything on earth apparently performs multiple functions, and thus the roots in a tree primarily act as conduits to lift necessary raw materials or chemicals made available by soil and water for the tree’s growth as a whole, while ripe fruits - with the energy for cooking is provided by sunlight - act as containers for storage of surplus food or energy, as well as its seeds...
The stem in the middle of these two, primarily, apparently, acts as the inert body to maintain sufficient distance between the earth and the fruit, perhaps to allow it to ‘mature’ and ripen. And, then only to naturally fall down on the ground for the use of various animal life forms that are temporarily attached to the ground, perhaps primarily with its selfish interest of some of its seeds to catch the earth and germinate for the sustenance of its species till eternity in continuous natural cycles...
With the background information as recorded in the Gita by the ‘wise ancients’, the innumerable temporary or transient animal life forms were perhaps visualized to function like the inert stems of trees that all are connected to our solar system (like puppets), including earth (that acts as the stage), as their common roots, in the form of their essences that reflect solar system’s members’ surplus energy that is temporarily stored within their physical forms (from Moon in the head and Mars at the base)...
And the composite earth, the apparent Provider of all materials, or the ‘pancha-tatva’, is the common fruit - surplus energy of the system that keeps it sustained in its immortal form till eternity!
For me Kim, our dog himself was an enigma, a unique soul - a Cocker Spaniel my father had brought home as a pup I and my 5 other siblings as children saw in our residence...
He allowed my younger brother – like one rides a horse - to ride on his back! He didn’t bark at properly dressed strangers, except postmen and therefore they approached our house cautiously - God alone knows why he was averse to them. Beggars, therefore, skipped our house...
Our friends used to say that a well-dressed thief could take away everything from our house even in his presence!
However, thanks to Krishna and/ or Shiva no such incident occurred till he was there. For as children we had seen how our parents observed fast every year on Krishna Janmashtami and Shiva-ratri, which we children also were inititiated into at the age considered right by our parents, although it was purely because of temptation to receive special cereal-less food and fruits etc - that our mother prepared for consumption in the night after puja was duly performed and ‘prasad’ served first - that we children were interested in.
With this background in mind it was only later that I could see the link between Shiva the Destroyer/ Yamraja or Dharmaraja the agent of death/ Krishna, in the Gita, also calling himself an agent of death/ Yudhister also called Dharmaraja by ancients, and Yamaraja believably accompanied the Pandavas in their journey to ‘swarga’ that is ‘Heaven’, in the form of a dog!
Kim was unwell and only I was at home when my father informed me before leaving for office that my cousin would take him to the veterinary doctor when he returned from college.
He was sleeping tied with a chain to my chair’s leg when I was studying some book, perhaps preparing for some examination. Suddenly at a certain stage he stood up and indicated that he wanted to go to the courtyard at the rear end of the house by pulling hard at the chain. I thought he wanted to ease himself and so I released it without getting up from the chair.
He was soon out of sight and out of my mind too. It was only when my cousin came home and wanted to immediately take him to the doctor that he reported he was dead and lying in a strange pose in the courtyard!
Yes, it really was a unique sight, he was lying prostrate with the front paws extended towards the Harshringar Tree that we had in the courtyard and was the source of innumerable flowers for offering to Shiva by our mother, as we also had helped her count them every year for offering 100, 000 of them during a certain period!
It was such a big loss no one could bear - tears rolled down the cheeks and food wasn’t cooked in our house that day. Thus our father then decided not to have a pet in the house as it creates too much of attachment.
Of course, as “Man proposes and God disposes”, circumstances obliged us to have two more dogs at different times later!
I now believe that it perhaps was the only 'real fast' in honour of the Bhootnath, the soul within Kim, for as per ancient ‘Hindu belief, God can appear in any form!
In English, DOG is a symbolic representation of an animal form through the same alphabets that depict the Formless Creator, or GOD – except that positions of letters, G & D, are interchanged, just as in my image in a mirror, my left side appears as the right one, and vice versa!
Krishna believably is mischievous as per the ancients - who also indicated man ‘an image of God’, and also mischievously or cryptically indicated DOG as literally the ‘real image’ of GOD (we know today that animal brain is an ananalogous computer)!
Human being believably is the best creation of God and it, however, generally acts foolishly believably because of ‘lack of knowledge’, as ‘Krishna’ says it in the Gita, which perhaps means lack of knowledge of how to use the under one kilogram priceless muscle computer that the Supreme being, Adbhutnath, has taken unending trouble to provide free for trial to all of us eternally, but unfortunately without printed instructions for use that are generally supplied by the manufacturer of each electronic device...
We sometimes buy ‘wisely’ one kilo of a detergent - that might not be needed as we already might have sufficient stock of it at home - when we actually needed a steel spoon that was being given free with a pack of it!
And then there are specimens who call themselves theists - and despite reading the ‘Truth’, in the Gita, say, about man only being ‘an instrument’ of ‘God the real doer’ and yet they continue to believe they are the doers!
And, so on, one goes on enumerating, due to ‘Maya’ or illusion created by the Formless, the ‘man-made wonders’ while failing to see the unseen strings, for they unknowingly use only the inefficient pair of eyes, as an apparatus for vision and keeping closed the mind's eye!
Kavitha, isn’t it ‘adbhut’ or wonderful!?
It is the believable fear of unknown that is the cause of all awkward reactions in humans. And, this fear is apparently increasing much more rapidly with the passage of time in the ‘present’, which in reality is the remotest ‘past’ of Shiva who apparently took four stages of Yugas, or long periods of time, to attain ‘overall perfection’ or control over the entire 360 degrees of space…
At the beginning of the process of His evolution, He had believably started with innumerable models or ‘images’, that were all of them ‘imperfect’, to begin with, like all children at all times as the reflection of the ‘Truth’…
Obviously it is fear that would have obliged them to create barriers utilizing either inferior life forms, or even inferior humans because of the apparent hiearchy with the apparently more physically powerful humans acting at the head, as their leader – the characteristic property apparently associated with General Kartikeya, the valorous!
It is apparent that physical power, represented by M for Musle, automatically attracts M for Money, or Material, associated with Venus, the specialist that holds poison in its atmosphere!
The ‘wise’ Hindus, however, appear to have realized that it is proper application of muscles in the muscle computer, that is, brain that was more important, and ‘Money can’t buy love’. And, hence brain found superiority over brawn as the ‘Truth’, for Shiva to reach perfection. Hence, Moon was required to come into being to control the destructive power of Kali, the ‘fire’ in the ‘heart of Shiva’ (the molten magma in the core of earth) and bringing into being Ganesha, (the model of Mars, the believable Lord of Fire and war with proper strategy and not brute strength only), the favourite son of the brainy Parvati (the model of moon) that gave life-giving ‘amrit’ to all devtas - the solar system members! Behind the success of Shiva there obvioiusly is the hand of His consort, that gets reflected in hte saying, "Behind every successful man there is a woman". Sometimes, their tongue, (because of Kali), however, apparently puts them into trouble - in yet to be evolved specimens, as in the believable case of Draupadi by her laughing at Duryodhan when he slipped and attributing the cause to his father's blindness (in Dwaper-yuga)!
Jai Gurudev
Excellent work
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