(A decade ago after a
trip to Tibet, Nepal and India, I wrote down my impressions. It was not meant
to be a book, however after it was read by some, it was suggested that if it
gets published, interested persons can use it. However I thought (and still
think) that the narration was more of a personal quest into Bhagavan Shiva and
that it may not interest a wider audience. Therefore instead of commercially
publishing it, I thought of placing it on a website of Publishing house Harper
Collins’s website known as Authonomy.com.
It remained on their website as "Kailash Kathmandu and Kashi, a story of Shiva and me", for people to review my narration for many years.
However, last year, when Harper Collins shutdown Authonomy.com and I realized
that some people still wanted to read my account, I decided to place all 26
chapters of that travelogue on this blog. Reader views and comments are
welcome)
Chapter 3. Is Bhagavad Shiva a simple God or a perplexing One?
We are funny. We want our God to
be merciful and kind and nothing more, never mind our meanness. He should not
outsmart us. He should either not see our ‘crimes’, if seen, should preferably
‘ignore’ them; if really un-ignorable, He should give pardon; if unpardonable,
give only a ‘black-point’ but spare punishment; if punishing is inevitable,
award a minimum punishment. No wonder, the ‘pardoning types’, Jesus Christ and Bhagavan
Buddha evoke abundant ‘love and respect’. They did not hit back. Roman Governor
Pontius Pilate did not suffer for crucifixion of Jesus Christ. He lived his
life as smoothly as ever. Jesus did not do anything against him or Jew
conspirators. God’s son simply ignored them giving them benefit of doubt: “they
do not know what they are doing”. Thankfully, in the Buddha country, kings and
their subjects could never bring themselves to kill any Godly person in their
known history.
We want our Gods to be pardoning
types. Why not? In this sense, Bhagavan Shiva among other Hindu Gods
fits that bill somewhat. To His devotees He is “Bholey Nath”, the
‘Innocent God’, easy to ‘please’ and easy to get pardon from.
Other Hindu Gods are somewhat
‘different’, they cannot be ‘outsmarted’. Bhagavan Rama did not pardon
kidnapper of Sita nor was pardoned Kamnsa or Jarasangh by Bhagavan
Krishna. These Gods are too smart, they question you. But Bhagavan
Shiva, will trust your ‘sorry’ and boons are yours for asking. Bhagavan
Shiva, therefore, is known as ‘Bholey Nath’. However, if you do succeed in
making Him angry, His one glance through His Third-Eye would finish you in a
split second.
If one was to read stories spun
around Him, He seems to be a God that is ‘naïve’, ‘un-tricky’, ‘simple’, ‘easy
to please’, ‘easy as pleasing a simpleton’. Every Hindu knows Him to be a God
who grants the boons readily. His expectations are minimal. He does not need
any elaborate offerings. He gladly accepts simple water as an offering and that
3-worded simple prayer said with a pure heart is sufficient to get His empathy.
No wonder everyone loves Him!
Bhagavan Shiva
demonstrates ample simplicity and austerity stretching almost to
incredulity. Leave alone luxuries of
life, He does not possess a piece of cloth so much as to cover Himself. His
home is a door-less, ceiling-less, wall-less mountain Kailash. He is one God
that does not discriminate and rule out any individual, however good, bad or
ugly he or she may be. His temples spread across world are open 24x7 and are
open to everyone. No exception. Bhagavan Shiva, makes it easier and
simple for his devotees, He is at a beck and call of His genuine devotees.
For innocent, simple devotees, he
comes as a simple, unsophisticated God, however the moment one decides to take
a further journey into understanding Bhagavan Shiva, one hits difficult
terrain, more difficult than trek to Mount
Kailash. Keep no false
hopes, understanding Him is hard. Nearly an impossible task but indeed one that
is worthwhile, even half way through.
Bholey-Nath kind of knocks
us off balance upon closer look. Notice array of things around Him, many of
them weird, perhaps irrelevant. Consider the aspects that are associated with
Him! Seemingly so irreconcilable that, if it does not numb a stranger, it
should surprise us.
Look at these stark contrasts: On
one hand He is Bholey-Nath, but far from being simpleton, he is
considered God of intellect, knowledge and wisdom earning him another name “Dakshina
Murty” (The one who gives wisdom). He is the God of destruction and yet he
is said to be the kindest among all Gods and said to be easiest to please and
that is why known as “Ashutosh” “Dina Nath”, “Maha-Deva”, “Pashupati
Nath”, “Vishwa-Nath” (Easy to please God, God of Poor, Great God,
God of all beasts, God of the world). If on one hand His life is so austere; he
does not posses even a piece of garment, how is it that He is God of all arts,
crafts, music, drama and dance, the ‘Nataraj’(God of acting). On one
hand He is said to be God of Yoga, the ‘Yogeshwar’, the master of all
senses, and yet He is said to possess uncontrollable rage; loses His temper at
throw of a hat, earning him the terrible name ‘Rudra’ (Very Angry God).
He has annihilated Cupid Kama-Deva, (Hindu Deva of passion, who
travels on a parrot and has roses for arrows to conquer the target. Whoever is
hit by his arrow unfailingly falls in love). Anyone would therefore assume Him
to be against love and passion, however Himself, He is said to be in a
perpetual passionate union with his wife Parvati, occasionally shown her to be
sitting on His lap. Everyone, even all Gods have two eyes; He has three
(thereby known as “Tri-Netra” (three-eyed) or “Virupaaksh” (distorted-eyed). All other Gods are shown as either male or
female, Bhagavan Shiva, however is said to have half the body of male and half
the body of female (thereby known as “Ardha-Nari-Nateshwar” (Half-Male-Female-Great
Dramatizer-God).
These contradictions apart, for
me it became hard to understand, leave alone appreciation, his necklace of
human skulls, His love for the cremation grounds and Graveyards, His army of
terrible Ghosts, a crescent moon (moon of the second night after new-moon) on
his head (Therefore called as
‘Chandra-Shekher’ or
‘Chandra-Mauli’),
His sprinkling of ashes of burnt corpses, His cloth-less naked body (earning
him the name
“Dik(g)amber”-meaning “having four horizons of four
directions as garments”), Snake coiled around His neck (earning another name:
“Nagendra”-God
of snakes), matted locks of hair on His head (hence also named as
“Jatadhar”-having
matted-locks) through which spouts the holy River Ganga (Also known by
Anglicized word ‘Ganges’), in one hand He has a lively musical instrument, the
Drum but a deadly trident in the other
and last but not the least, His symbol represented by
Shiva-Linga,
often described as representing male and female genitalia elements in ‘cosmic’
union.
What is this if not bewildering,
mystifying and incomprehensible? I guess, a lot of intrigue surrounds
Bhagavan
Shiva as He comes to us from an extraordinary antiquity. He is even mentioned
in the world’s oldest text, Rig-Veda. A verse famously known as
“Maha-Mrutyunjaya”
(at 7-59-12 RV) is extremely popular with the believers and is credited with
unfailing powers that precludes devotee’s untimely death upon its regular
chanting. Rig-Veda is estimated to have been scripted around 3000 BC; a time
when according to the historians, man began writing. However, if one was to
consider literary quality of words and that
India lived mainly on oral
traditions, one can easily estimate antiquity of the content of this verse and
its addressee to much earlier period.
I can understand that some
mystery or inexplicability may remain owing to yet undiscovered science or
inaccuracies of History. When, for an easy comparison, I mull over the fact
that Bhagavan Buddha, Bhagavan Krishna and Jesus Christ even if
much more recent in the chronological order than Bhagavan Shiva, a lot
of abnormality and implausibility, remain attached to Them. Is it any wonder
than, when our moment is so far apart from the moments described in the ancient
Shiva-scriptures that it can sometimes become difficult connecting with the
traditions of Bhagavan Shiva. However on the other hand, enough
information is available for a devotee to worship Bhagavan Shiva in a
meaningful way. Mercifully, more than that, Bhagavan Shiva, allows a lot
of direct experiencing of Him that it soon renders irrelevant and meaningless,
our trying to find logic and reason in the stories woven around. However for
researchers, a lot of text, oral traditions, astronomical connections, ancient
structures, caves, repeatedly renovated temples over centuries and other data
exist to work on and arrive at ‘sensible’ reconciliation suitable for
modern-day man. Not withstanding ‘irreconcilability’, a lot of people have had
direct experiences of Bhagavan Shiva. Some of them, as we did, in our
Kailash expedition, can be experienced by many. Well guided lessons can help
reconcile all aspects and things, even the weirdest of things, as it happens to
me before starting out writing my story. I am not claiming any great knowledge
or accomplishment. I am just writing what I have sensed, felt and understood
for myself. Reader is an independent body-soul-mind instrument and will have to
discover for himself. His discovery can be even more tantalizing.
Discussion on
Bhagavan
Shiva can not be complete without including His wife Parvati. If Shiva is
father, Paravti is mother,
Mata in Indian languages. The
Mata
Parvati. In Her case too, my skepticism prevented Her early recognition, until
one day it hit me as if with a thunderbolt. I do not recall with accuracy when
and how, but remember distinctly what the content was. Probably it was during
my morning prayers when I was fresh from momentous trek in
Himalayas
during which, my wife and me had reached the origin of River Yamuna
and River Ganga
, as also
ancient temples of Kedar-Nath
and Badri-Nath
nestled
at a height of around 10-11,000 feet.
Mata Parvati is said to be
daughter of Mountain Himalaya where these holy places are situated in the
mountainous Indian state of Uttara-Khand. It was around five years before my
travel to the
Mount
Kailash.
In the sudden flash of awareness,
it dawned upon me as to how infinitely intelligent Mata Parvati was. She
insisted on choosing that apparently dreadful ascetic for husband. She had
understood vain and short-lived nature of the worldly things, relationships and
attachments. She could recognize, where most people are expected to be
clueless, the timelessness of the ultimate intelligence, ultimate love and
ultimate creativity that God is and She maintained Her undivided longing for Shiva
until He recognized intensity and understanding behind Her wish. If Mata
Parvati’s devotion to Her husband-to-be was intense, it became even more after
wedding and was reciprocated by Bhagavan Shiva. These thoughts have not
left me since then. I know, Both knew it when I had my miracle on the north
face of Mount Kailash.
I assume, Mata Parvati was
perhaps latently in my consciousness, thanks again to my parents. My dad used
to fondly call my mom as ‘Uma’, not because ‘Uma’ is also a name of Mata
Parvati, but as an appropriate nickname derived from her proper name ‘Urmila’.
For me, probably on account of my mom being occasionally addressed as Uma,
somehow or the other, Parvati may have been firmed up in my little mind as Mata
(Mother-Goddess) during childhood. I must honestly admit though, certainly it
did not connect with any conscious reverence to Mata Parvati at that
time and remained so until that sudden flash several decades later.
Not withstanding semblance of
clarity on Mata Parvati, the Bhagavan Shiva remained an unsolved
mystery; He is simple for ordinary like us and profound for extra-ordinary, who
can take the arduous task of understanding Him.
