Parvati the student ...... Lord Shiva the teacher ------------ Life on earth the lesson

Lord Shiva meditated for thousands of years , through this relentless meditation he mastered the art of detachment this is the main reason that he is hailed as Maha Yogi.

As the chapter of Sati(Human form of mother Sakthi) closes with destruction of Thakson`s selfish pride Lord Shiva grieves the loss of his dear wife Sati. This episode manifests the lesson of the bond between the husband and wife.

Lord Shiva disappears in the wilderness trying  to re  establish the greatness of detachment , the process through which he further isolates himself from the worldly affairs.

The great Adhi Sakthi in the quest of being with Lord Shiva and make him a complete form takes another form as Parvati this time having the great Parvatha Rajan as her father.

It is for the wellbeing of the Universe that prompted Parvati to bring Lord Shiva back closer to the world after the years of meditation. The wisdom that Lord Shiva gained through his years and years of meditation was needed to be applied to the world in order to keep it`s balance.

Hence Parvati became Lord Shiva`s best student and lord Shiva became Parvati`s teacher.

 Parvati would ask Shiva questions about the cosmos, and every answer would spark even more questions. While Shiva would answer these, great truths would be revealed to the world. Truths, that Shiva had discovered during his thousands of years of meditation.

Sitting on Kailasha (Kailasha is the mountain where Shiva lived and practiced Yoga and Meditation), Shiva explained Parvati the secrets of the cosmos, he answered every question that Parvati would have.

While answering these questions, Shiva started coming closer to worldly matters, he grew curious himself as he would study and find answers for Parvati. Now Shiva always had Parvati by his side.

He announced to the world, revealing a truth, “He who escapes from joy and sorrow, instead of living and dealing with them, is a fool and he shall forever fail to see the truth. And he who is only a part of pleasures and pains of life, is also a fool, he shall also never discover the truth. The truth lies in balance, in harmony, between body, mind and soul. It is the balance between individual and society.”

While revealing the truth to the world, Shiva makes an important point where he communicates that the truth is not in renouncing the world, it is not in extreme meditation, it is in the balance of things that you find the truth of life. This means that we must always enjoy the sorrows and pleasures of life while balancing them with the meditation and discovery of the self.

I am sure that whoever reads this would take the underlying life principle behind this rather than pondering about the reality of these events. The storey of Lord shiva is a tool to lead a better, peaceful human life .

Ohm Namashivaya

Sakthi Sakthithasan

Thanks to Dr Nilima Chitgopekar

Lord Shiva , Brahma and the World that is . . . .

As my quest to learn about Lord Shiva grows I come across lot of material that I read. It is very interesting that each incident or happening of events involving Lord Shiva has a deep rooted Spiritual message behind it.
It is not my intention to preach religious information or teach religion it is a fact that lot of legendary stories that we have gives us an important virtue to lead a life that promotes love and peace toward other religions and all the humans.

Here I am sharing such an interesting piece of information that I come across.

Shiva was examining Brahma’s creation one day and realized that all he could see and hear were sounds of plight, frustration, anger, hate and sadness. Shiva was disheartened, he grew full of pain himself and wept.

He went to Brahma. By now Brahma already had five heads, four to look around and see the daily functioning of the world and the fifth to hold his pride.

Shiva went to Brahma and said: “Brahma, what have you done, what have you created, all I see is sadness and hate in this world.”

Brahma, who was filled with pride, ignored what Shiva had to express. He continued to do as he pleased. This filled Shiva with rage and anger. He took the form of Bhairava, and ripped of Brahma’s fifth head, the one which held his pride. (Bhairava is another name for Shiva which originated from this story, and literally means “frightful”)

Brahma now aware and fearful of Shiva hurriedly began to explain, “Dear Lord, I have not filled the world with sadness, I have merely created it. The world that I created is neither filled with sadness nor with happiness; it is neither beautiful nor ugly, the world JUST IS. What anyone may think of it is just their perception”.

Shiva argued, “But you created the mind, which creates these perceptions.”

Brahma replied to that, “The mind can be deluded by perceptions or can be enlightened by truth. But how one makes this choice is often the difference between the successful and those who fail in their endeavors?

The Meaning

There are two very strong messages that Shiva shares here. First, pride must be ended in all circumstances. Pride makes us think and look beyond subjects that matter and deludes further our perception of the world, i.e. pride in itself becomes a concern for us, and we forget to think about the more important aspects of life like relationships, friendships, our dharma, happiness etc and all that takes over our minds is pride, which actually does not matter. Pride makes people careless and complacent for which they usually have to pay heavily later.

The second lesson that Shiva gives us is that everything that we see is based on a perception that we have of the world. None of which may be true. Hence, what we see is merely one possible scenario which may or may not be true. Given this knowledge we should always try and look at the world with the most positive perspective possible to manifest greater happiness in our lives, as looking at life through a perspective of  pain and pessimism itself is the source of suffering. 

Have you ever thought of the question that Brahma asks Shiva “The mind can be deluded by perceptions or can be enlightened by truth? But how one makes this choice is often the difference between the successful and the not so successful?”

I hope that the above piece of information helps you to have your thoughts provoked in a possitive direction.

Sakthi Sakthithasan

(Thanks ------ Dr. Nilima Chitgopekar    Please visit  http://www.theshivaexperience.com )