Playing such loud music, which is also indecent sometimes, whereas Muslims take their religion very seriously. They don’t perform any such things as playing loud music or disrespecting their religion in any manner. We Hindus make fun of our own religion, mantras and pandits. This thing I have never seen in Muslims. I think Hindus should learn this quality from Muslims. What is the reason behind this contrasting attitude of these two religions? Kindly explain.
Shiva defies definition since he is the great liberator. He liberates us not only from ignorance but also from form. He is the essence of formlessness, the Nothingness that holds the seeds of creation within him. He releases the seeds and material forms begin to emerge out of the Inconscience. Then, when the play in Time is over, Shiva destroys these forms as the Lord of Time, Mahakala. Vishnu is endless Space, Shiva is endless Time.
Shiva is mighty and majestic, Calm and August, grand and alone in his trance absolute. Yet is he the cosmic dancer who once releases the rhythms and metres while at the same time destroying what he has created when creation falls far out of rhythm. Shiva is shantam, sashwatam, subham, the Peace of the Eternal, the eternal Good, the Auspicious. Yet he is also the Force, tapashakti of the Creator. Shiva is supreme benevolence, asutosh, easy to please and quick to anger Divine. He is nilkanth who drinks the poison of the world, its bitterness and suffering, and bears the stain of our sorrows and sins. Hence, he is dear to the Asuras and the Asuras are dear to him for they too are vessels of the poison released in creation and hence bear what Shiva bears. But they do it unconsciously, whereas Shiva does it consciously as a god.
He is Chandrasekhara, the spiritual light that helps man as he struggles and stumbles in the darkness. He is hope for the hopeless, Shiva is refuge of the lost. He is the Deity who presides over all the transformations by destroying the old creations so that a way can be made for the new creations. He destroys the past so that the future may manifest. As Hara, he takes away all the miseries, as Hari, he fills all things with sweetness, love and joy. Hari and Hara are a single god.
Shiva is the power that helps in evolution. Vasuki is the serpent of evolution that moves and churns all things so that new possibilities may emerge. Shiva is the power of askesis, the lord of tapasya, the supreme renunciate, as well as the Divine Householder who teaches us the truth of all relationships.
Shiva is the freedom and pride of a god. Shiva is the compassion and humility of a god. Shiva is the lord of the tempest and the mountain. Shiva is the purity of perfect solitude and absolute silence. Shiva is to be free from fear, to transcend death. Shiva is Saumya and Raudra rasa in a single being.
Shiva is the Force of Sacchidananda.
Let me close with a poem of Sri Aurobindo on Shiva.
‘Shiva – The Inconscient Creator‘
‘A face on the cold dire mountain peaks
Grand and still; its lines white and austere
Match with the unmeasured snowy streaks
Cutting heaven, implacable and sheer.
Above it a mountain of matted hair
Aeon-coiled on that deathless and lone head
In its solitude huge of lifeless air
Round, above illimitably spread.
A moon-ray on the forehead, blue and pale,
Stretched afar its finger of chill light
Illumining emptiness. Stern and male
Mask of peace indifferent in might!
But out from some Infinite born now came
Over giant snows and the still face
A quiver and colour of crimson flame,
Fire-point in immensities of space.
Light-spear-tips revealed the mighty shape,
Tore the secret veil of the heart’s hold;
In that diamond heart the fires undrape,
Living core, a brazier of gold.
This was the closed mute and burning source
Whence were formed the worlds and their star-dance;
Life sprang, a self-rapt inconscient Force,
Love, a blazing seed, from that flame-trance.’
(Ref. https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/02/shiva)
Coming to the Hindus, they are part of the ongoing destruction of the outer formal ritualistic and dogmatic aspects of all religions. Religions are now only for name’s sake. There are no more any Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists or true followers of any religion left. Perhaps very few. Religion has outlived its purpose. It is now the Age of universal spirituality, the Age for the revival of Sanatana Dharma, because that alone has the knowledge and can provide the true basis for the spiritual resurgence of the world and mankind. Surely people continue to adhere outwardly to their religious identity, but God within cannot be fooled. The outer is the last to change. The death of Religions is imminent so that a new and higher spiritual age can emerge.
The Hindus tried to bring God everywhere and hence the number of festivals and celebrations. The Muslim and the Christian kept their God far away from life, a God to be worshipped from afar and whose scriptural law one has to follow. Hence, it is easy for them to adhere, at least in the worship and not in the actions. The God of Hindu is everywhere and at all times, from conception to death, from the Sun and moon and stars to rivers and mountains and stone, from trees and birds and beasts to the God within man himself. We don’t live by rules but by the sense of the sacred in everything, from food and sleep to waking up and the daily release and cleansing. Hence the difficulty. That vast vision is lost now; only the outer shell of ritual remains. This too will go. You have to revive the true spirit of Sanatana Dharma and not carry the dying corpse of the outer forms that expressed it once. Sati is sacrificing herself in the cosmic yagna so that Parvati may be born. This is what we see happening today as part of God’s play, the lila of the Lilamaya.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
