Shiva
June 23-26, 2024
“The word śiva (Devanagari: शिव, also transliterated as shiva) means auspicious, propitious, gracious, benign, kind, benevolent, friendly.” —Monier-Williams Sanskrit English dictionary
“The root words of śiva in folk etymology are śī which means in whom all things lie, pervasiveness and va which means embodiment of grace.
“The term Shiva also connotes liberation, final emancipation and the auspicious one.” —All quoted parts are from Wikipedia entry on Shiva
Please note: What follows may not be “officially sanctioned” and some of it will definitely be “non-traditional.” All of this is meant with complete reverence and respect for Shiva—the deity, the idea, and the state of Consciousness. My head is forever at his feet.
I can imagine traditionalists and possibly people concerned with “cultural appropriation” taking offense at parts of this writing. I humbly invite those people into the simple inquiry of “Does Shiva take offense or is it just the ego-me taking offense?”
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Each year I have at least one “pose of the year.” In December—during the “final exam” time for the current year’s pose(s)—I contemplate and open to guidance on what would be a good pose for the following year. For whatever reason—not determined by “me”—this year they are a version of natarajasana—“king dancer pose”—and Shiva namaskar—pose saluting Lord Shiva. (Interestingly, the pose I learned as Shiva namaskar does not show up as I learned it in an internet search. Oh, well. I continue…) Both these poses relate to Shiva.
There are many ways to view Shiva. I’ll hold off from addressing the dictionary and encyclopedic definitions above for the time being. A fairly well-known fact in the yoga world is that Shiva is part of the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. In this triad, Shiva is known as the “Destroyer.” (Brahma is the Creator and Vishnu is the Sustainer.) A more friendly framing is that Shiva is the Transformer, which is the way that I usually say it.
Did you notice that some things are created—or at least seem to be? That would be Brahma’s doing, so to speak. Did you notice that some things seem to be sustained for a while? That would fall under Vishnu. And do you also notice that everything in the material world changes? That would be the work of Shiva. This is a quite simplistic way of viewing it.
In India, Brahma, the Creator, is for the most part not worshipped, though his consort (his shakti, “his” energy) Saraswati very much is! Vishnu, the Sustainer, is widely worshipped there, I think partly for the simple fact that people bound up in the world want things to continue. Even if they are annoying or painful, if things continue as they are, predictability then makes managing things easier to handle. Vishnu is also worshipped, in my opinion, because his consort—his energy—is personified as Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. People in this country would also have an easy time worshipping her/them! A certain amount of wealth, of course, makes things easier and is desirable to most.
The Indians felt that there was no special benefit to be gained by worshipping the Creator. Creating happened, but it’s done; now what? That’s what we have to deal with now. It’s no surprise, however, that anyone would worship what sustains. It makes complete sense that people would worship the personification of the mysterious forces that provide the wealth and prosperity that allow their lives to continue and to be made ever better.
Shiva, however, is a different story. What kind of crazy person would worship the personification of destruction? In my view, only an honest person. We talk about things being created, but it’s really only semantics. Nothing is ever created; it is only “ingredients” changing form in some way or another. Those “ingredients” were “destroyed” in the process. We talk about things being sustained, but that also is really only semantics. Nothing in the world that we relate to—including what we think of as ourselves—remains the same, even for a split second. Everything is constantly being “destroyed”—call it changing if you prefer.
Because of these facts, in my view Shiva is the only honest one of that Trinity. Brahma, the Indians just left alone as having done his job; Creation happened, but we are here now. Vishnu, the Sustainer, has to be talked about in conjunction with “his” Maya (his illusory power). The appearance that anything is actually being sustained requires a mind—a part of the material, ever-changing world—to make the illusion of things being sustained. Maya, the illusion, requires a mind—a part of the ever-changing world—to look at the ever-changing world and insanely cling to anything as if that thing could remain the same.
We mostly rebel at the fact that everything is constantly changing, gripping as we do (me, too!) onto the way we want things to be, to the stories we tell ourselves about the way things are, including the hallucination that anything in the world could stay the same even for a second! My body, my mind, my knowledge, my youth, my health, my job, my lover, my dog/cat, my kid, my parent, my race, my political party, my planet,…. And even beyond all the “my” things, everything else: other people, cultural ways of life, easy consumerism. The list can easily go on!
The sooner we get comfortable with the fact of the ever-changing-ness of What Is, the sooner we have a chance of discovering the happiness that everyone is seeking.
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Historically speaking, one of the earliest gods mentioned in the Vedas is Rudra—the howler—a fierce and fairly scary deity especially associated with storms. Rudra is currently viewed as a form of Shiva as well as the precursor to what we now know as Shiva—Rudra was basically the primordial, first-envisioned, form of Shiva. Clearly, the early humans understood that not only does everything change but also sometimes things can be ripped away in a moment! If the ancients were going to worship that fact in any big way, they needed a rebranding; hence the transformation over centuries or millennia of the name from The Howler to The Auspicious, Propitious, Gracious, Benign, Kind, Benevolent, Friendly One (from the dictionary definition at the top). That is current-world spin on the transformation of name, but I don’t think it would be wise to overlook how and why this name-change happened.
Knowing that history, my earlier question (Who would worship that?) transforms to a more urgent, “Why the heck would a person worship transformation/destruction/change?” Not just acknowledge the fact that there is change and transformation—which I could probably begrudgingly do—but actually worship it—bow to it, have reference and love toward it, hold it dear above everything else, even open completely to it, surrender to it. Why? For one, because change/transformation/destruction is the only thing that is happening in the world! The only thing happening seems like a good justification for deification! And then the first part of the etymological break-down of the word Shiva makes profound sense: in whom all things lie, pervasiveness. All things “lie” in change; change/destruction is “all pervading.”
A more important reason to worship That is that we have human minds which tend to fear change and transformation, and the mind wants to try to control any change or transformation that occurs. This need for control leads to all kinds of difficulties; for example, some peoples’ necks end up feeling the need to be the dominant muscle group in every yoga pose! However, if we worship change—or the embodiment, the symbol or representation of change—instead of fearing and trying to control, we then actively flip the script and use our mind to help itself be more peaceful with all that changes, which is all of Life!
Though earlier I poked fun at the name change from Rudra to Shiva, if we flip the script from a mindset of fear to a mindset of reverence, we will probably find that what we had thought and imagined was terrifying is actually “auspicious and propitious (both meaning favorable), even gracious, benign, kind and friendly.” This change of experience could result simply from having changed our mind and could only be in our mind, but in my experience, changing my mind results in the outward appearances changing in response as well. (Some of you have experienced that in the “I Love You” practice, I’m sure.) At least it appears that my local world changes, and it is just a part of the whole world, which also then must change. (How could it not? That’s an important question to chew on.)
If I change my relationship to What Is, What Is is changed by that personal, mental change. If we change our mind, we have just changed everything. Then, navigating our life will be easier than it was when we were in the fear mode. We can embrace change with appreciation and love, potentially even reverence. That alone seems like a good enough answer to “why worship it?” That would be Shiva namaskar (remember the poses of the year?), reverent salutations to Lord Shiva. That shift can reveal the second part of the etymological breakdown of Shiva: embodiment of grace.
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Enough about destruction! Shiva is seen as Destroyer in that Trinity, true, but for the Shaivites—the worshippers of Shiva—Shiva is the All-in-All who in one form (of many) is viewed as Nataraja (the other pose of the year). Shiva as Nataraja—the Lord or King of the Dance or King Dancer—is seen as dancing the world into existence, sustaining it for some time, and destroying it—taking all of the roles of the Trinity—all while gesturing to what is really important in the whole dance: his upraised left foot, symbolizing liberation—knowledge of one’s True Nature. This is all happening in a ring of fire which is traditionally viewed as symbolizing the universe, but I think it also symbolizes the explosion—the infinite expansion—of Consciousness that happens when we realize the Truth.
Nataraja is dancing everything into existence. Dancing feels good and is also a great way in. A spontaneous dance like Shiva’s is an expression of natural following of the forces of inspiration. Shiva’s dance is the beautiful dance of Life that includes all the parts, not just the parts we feel egoically comfortable with.
By assuming the yoga-pose form of Shiva, so to speak, we are not “just” honoring Shiva but “embodying” That. We ourselves are also, in a way, dancing our life and our individual world into existence, sustaining it for some time, and having it dissolve in its time. We then need to remember what is most important in all that: Truth and a profound experience of It. This is one way we could elevate the view of placing our body in this potentially yummy—or horribly challenging—quad-stretching, chest- and heart-opening, shoulder-mobilizing, hip-flexor-lengthening, hip- and hamstring- and core-strengthening, balance pose.
The Hindu deities are, in one sense, personifications of states of Consciousness, which I capitalize to indicate the One Supreme Consciousness, not to be confused—though non-separate from—“our” “individual” consciousness. We could also take them as maps of Consciousness. Shiva is—at least for the Shaivites and others—indicative of the Supreme Consciousness, of the Oneness. When a human being experiences that state of Consciousness, they are then referred to as “liberated,” as per one of the connotations of Shiva mentioned at the very beginning.
Consciousness—which in this view is the primordial form of energy—is “dancing” What Is into existence, sustaining and ending it. By assuming this yoga pose indicative of Shiva, we embody—in a sense—that highest state of Consciousness. We do this in a way that is both energetic and mythological and therefore beyond the thinking mind.
Another view on Shiva is that he is seen (my non-Vaishnavas, worshippers of Vishnu) as Yogeshwar, the Lord of Yogis, and is seen as the Ultimate Yogi, always immersed in meditation. Shiva nataraja specifically is one of the most repeated icons in the space of Loving Kindness Yoga School/the Yoga Shala Carrboro. Shiva is one form that is especially dear to those practicing Yoga (capitalized to indicate the entire Path of Yoga and the Bigger Picture toward which the practices aim, as opposed to only asana practice) partly due to the transformational aspect of that idea/icon/state of Consciousness, and partly due to the meditative clarity and focused-insight aspects. All these aspects are ones that Yoga practitioners revere and respect, want to embody, and find to be friendly, benign and favorable.
I’ll wrap up this long writing with a question Krysten posed a couple months ago. She asked with some trepidation, “By doing these poses, are we inviting change so we’ll have more of it?.” A valid and important question. I answered that change is already happening—always!—and that we are potentially coming to a different relationship with it.
In a way it’s not possible to invite more change since change is the only thing happening, but it could be possible to invite more change that we experience as uncomfortable or painful. That is going to happen anyway, in its own time, but we also have to remember that Sri Aurobindo called Yoga “compressed evolution,” meaning by practicing Yoga, we are speeding up the process of personal evolution. For this speeding up to happen, we have to experience “more” of the buried stuff than we might otherwise in the same amount of time. However, I believe this process will happen regardless of whether we are specifically invoking Shiva or “just” doing practices aimed at cultivating awareness, building Love, and clearing out the inner muck.
Enjoy the changes!
Jai Shiva! Victory to the Supreme Oneness! Jai Shiva! Victory to the Supreme Consciousness! Jai Shiva! Victory to the Experience of Complete Liberation!