Today is Shivaratri, and as such, I thought it’d be fitting to dedicate this post to the Hindu God Shiva.
Symbolism plays a huge role in Hinduism; but until recently, I never even thought to consider that perhaps all of the mythological stories I grew up hearing have deeper purposes that simply to entertain and teach children simple lessons about life. Today, I was thinking about Shiva, whom many Hindus worship as the destroyer of all evil. He is one of the holy trinity, of which Brahma and Vishnu are the other two Gods.
Normally, we learn of Shiva as simply the destroyer of evil — but when you stop to think about it, almost every aspect of the way he is depicted is symbolic. Thinking about it in terms of my life today, I have tried to use these symbols to explain and help me with certain situations of my life today. Here are some of my thoughts/realizations/epiphanies.
1. Poison
Many of us have learned how Shiva’s neck is blue because he chose to drink the poison which came up from the ocean while the Gods were churning the ocean for the nectar of immortality. In real life though, what does this mean? Obviously, we aren’t expected to ingest real poison and store it in our throats for the rest of our lives; however, perhaps this symbolism means that when we have the chance to help others, we should, even if it causes some inconvenience. The question then, arises: what is the threshold of inconvenience that we should put ourselves through so that we can help others? It is a question I struggle with often — and though I am still in search of a firm answer, my strategy for now is to help as much as I can without sacrificing myself so much that I am no longer able to help others. As Swami Tyagananda, of the Vedanta Center in Boston mentioned in his lecture today, another way to think of it is as follows — this poison also represents that substance which nobody else wants; by ingesting it, Shiva shows himself as the person who accepts that which everyone else rejects. In a sense, this symbol can be viewed in two ways — if we think of it in the dualistic way (i.e. Shiva is my Lord, I am his worshipper), then this is a very comforting thought, since it means that Shiva will accept us, even if we are rejected by the rest of the world. If we follow the non-dualistic train of thought (i.e. that “I am Shiva”), then this means that in our own lives, we too should work to comfort those whom the world rejects — of course, this is much easier said than done.
2. Followers
Shiva’s followers (his army) consist of many ghouls and goblins; I always thought of this as strange, especially coming from a background when ghosts and other such figures are considered to be “evil,” in a sense. What does it mean, then, that they are Shiva’s followers? Perhaps on some level, it is a sign that Shiva’s love is all-encompassing and that he accepts everyone, regardless of how few or many our faults may be. But to think about it another way, if Shiva is the ideal, he associates with ghouls and ghosts and accepts them just as he would any other follower. And in that sense, his ideas can very well be adopted into our lives — it seems to be an inherent tendency to shirk away from those we consider to be bad influences; but perhaps instead of looking down upon people for their faults, it would be a better use of our time to look for their good qualities and adopt those into our lives. Nobody is perfect; all have flaws; so why not look beyond those, as Shiva seems to do, and learn from the good?
3. Ganga
One of Shiva’s names is Gangadhar, showing that the Ganga River has its origin in his matted locks. In Hindu mythology, it is said that Shiva’s hair was the only place where Ganga could descend from heaven and land upon without wreaking havoc upon the earth. Thus, Shiva not only accepted this destructive force, but he turned it into the fertile and nourishing river that has sustained many Indians for countless centuries. In a similar vein, his example shows us to not only accept criticism and the destructive forces which sometimes enter our lives, but to change the way we deal with them in such a way that even the most destructive forces become constructive. In that way, everything becomes a function of how we view it, an idea similar to Swami Vivekananda’s view that the world is neither good nor evil; it is what we make of it.
Analysis of the ways we can learn from the symbol that is Shiva can be endless; for now, I will leave it to those three examples that have really influenced the way I see and act in the world. It is incredible to think of the depth that Vedic sages must have had to be able to express such profound and life-influencing morals and ideals in such simple symbolism.
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One of my favourite representations of Shiva is his form of Ardhanarishwara. The phsyical form of Ardhanadiswara is depicted as half man and half woman, symbolising that God is both feminine and masculine. This form demonstrates the dualism of all things in nature and the need for coexistence of both halves for there to be a whole – a concept very similar to Taoism’s yin and the yang.
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