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Understanding Shiva PDF

The document discusses the Hindu deity Shiva and the meaning behind the mantra "Har Har Mahadev". It tells the mythological story of how Shiva drank a deadly poison called kalakuta that emerged from the churning of the ocean by the gods and demons. By holding the poison in his throat without letting it spread, Shiva's throat turned blue, earning him the name "Neelkantha". The document argues that the poison represents the negative emotions like greed and anger that humans experience, and that Shiva serves as a role model for overcoming such poisonous desires through spiritual practice.

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Parmod Saini
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303 views3 pages

Understanding Shiva PDF

The document discusses the Hindu deity Shiva and the meaning behind the mantra "Har Har Mahadev". It tells the mythological story of how Shiva drank a deadly poison called kalakuta that emerged from the churning of the ocean by the gods and demons. By holding the poison in his throat without letting it spread, Shiva's throat turned blue, earning him the name "Neelkantha". The document argues that the poison represents the negative emotions like greed and anger that humans experience, and that Shiva serves as a role model for overcoming such poisonous desires through spiritual practice.

Uploaded by

Parmod Saini
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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UNDERSTANDING SHIVA

Dipankar Khanna, My Republica, Kathmandu, 5th May, 2018


http://www.myrepublica.com/news/41085/?categoryId=81

What does Har Har Mahadev mean? We all know it is like a mantra to invoke
Shivaji—one of the three principal deities of the Hindu pantheon. While as
Lokeshwara he is compassion personified; he is wrathful and strident too, invoking
rajas. ‘Har’ means to destroy, annihilate and overcome’ foes through the power of
“Maha’ or supreme, great, omnipotent or all powering ‘deva’ or God.

Since our world is unceasingly tempting and provoking us with our thoughts and
feelings and we face troubles in many circumstances we find ourselves invoking
‘call to action’ chants. Shiva ji is a truly brave spiritual foe-destroyer, but he does
not seek to destroy other people, or their religion, their beliefs, or way of living. He
combats the negative forces we leash out from our own attachments, success and
failures which lead to arrogance, greed, anger and other lethal and unhealthy
feelings.

Let me take you back to a mythological time. When devas and asuras teamed up to
churn the ocean to extract nectar that gave magical powers and immortality, they
pulled and heaved on the shesnaga (serpent king) Vasukhi using it as the churning
string and Mandara the celestial mountain as the churning stick on top of which lay
the divine sustainer lord Visnu.

The experiment of obtaining the nectar and other ratnas or treasures was
successful. However what the devas and the asuras were unprepared for and which
even Brahma the creator of the universe and the sustainer Visnu could not handle
was the by-product from the Samudra Manthan or churning of the ocean kalakuta
(also called halahala ). Kalakuta was so deadly and it would destroy the entire
creation in the universe.
All the devas and asuras were in a tizzy and trembled at the apocalypse soon to be
unleashed from this poison entering the mainstream of life instigating unhealthy
and selfish desires. However, lord Visnu in his wisdom advised devas and asuras
that the only person who could help in this predicament was Shiva ji since he was
the only one who could contain and control the effects of kalakuta.

The protector
So what did Lord Shiva do? He drank up the foul poison and as the poison entered
his mouth and travelled to his throat he held it there. Without allowing the effects
of the poison to either travel to his head or to heart he held the poison at his throat
chakra—the centre of feelings and desires.

As a result of this Shiva ji’s throat turned blue and therefore he is also known as
Neelkantha or the blue-throated one. And because he did not allow the poison to
contaminate either the qualities of his head or heart he is known in the three times
and ten directions as Bhaavesh or lord of feelings.

Again, what is important to understand is that the poison which is capable of


destroying the whole of creation is essentially of our own making and doing and
these poisons are the poisons of our own defilement-obscurations or klesh-
avaranas in our mind. Beginning with avidya or ignorance with respect to the true
nature of who we are and resulting in generating acute fear lest we lose our worldly
and material status, position and wealth we are constantly buffeted with waves of
uncontrolled and insatiable cravings and greed, unproved anger and conceit.

Thus the wise among us understand and recognize that the poison kalakuta is one
of the strongest metaphors for all the greed, desire, anguish and anger which we
sometimes erringly choose at the cost of destroying the divinity within us.
If we look around today’s political spectrum how many politicians actually come
across genuinely in words and deeds? How many of them have control over their
over ambitious feeling and feel the pain of others? Are any of them really a
Bhaavesh or Neelkantha in a spiritual sense? No.

We find it difficult to identify a noble spirit like Shivaji considering their intensely
aggressive and ruthless behavior in running roughshod over their opposition and
their own colleagues and in their hurried quest to climb the gaddi (apex) of power.
As of now wherever we look all the political parties in the arena are hued in a
heinous blue all over. In our world today we are disturbed and saddened by the
visions of ‘Lord of the Flies’ impaled on the stake dancing before my eyes.
The author is a master trainer of NLP and faculty at Srishti Institute of Design, Bangalore.

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