Lord Shiva - The Dancer Who Recreates

Lord Shiva - The Dancer Who Recreates

None gave him birth, He knows no Lord. None rules Him in the world, nor yet controls. No features mark Him out, yet cause He is. Prime cause of that which steers, the senses five, the soul within.” Shvetashvattara Upanishad.

Around the beginning of this millennium, it is said there was a revival of Saivism and the power of Shiva. By then the idea of Shiva had built into the vedic texts too. He is identified with Rudra in the Rig Veda. Various texts give different versions of his creation and each one they say is symbolic of his many facets. He, Shiva, is the one who has conquered time, for He destroys and re-creates. He, Shiva, is white in colour for white stands for justice in acts of annihilation. He, Shiva, is the one who has conquered death and historically his resurgence from the Pre-Aryan period to the present day obsession is one way of looking at it.

Another story says the Lord of all beings was a householder and of his wife Usha was born a child. The child kept crying so the father questioned him as to why he cried. He said he cried for the want of a name. The father was quick to name him if that could bring some quiet and he was called Rudra, from the rot word rud which means, to cry.

The Linga Purana has yet another version to relate. According to this story, Brahma, the creator had five mind-born sons. Many fathers may be able to sympathize with Brahma, for the father of creation too was dissatisfied with his sons. None of them showed any promise, the typical progenitor felt. He contemplated on Siva for solution. Siva himself appeared and told him He was his son. Siva then assumed the ardhanareeswara form.

The ardhanareeswara is yet another concept that Shiva stands for. In this aspect he draws the feminine into his own self. He is half man, half woman. A symbol of the Samkhya philosophy which talks of Purusha (the male energy) and Prakriti (the female energy) together making the cosmic energy.

As Ardhanareeswara, Shiva destroys the old, for in destruction there is renewal, it cleanses and constructs anew. In this new construction, he is the Father of Brahma. And the cycle of time, the process of recreation begin all over again.

In successive kalpas, or age, Shiva donned five roles. The five-form concept later took shape as the Panchamukha Shiva or Five faced Shiva with each face given a direction – the dimension of space had thus been added to the dimension of time. As Sadyojata he faced East, as tatpurusha he faced north, as Aghora he faced west and as Ishana he faced south. As Sadesiva (Eternal Shiva) he was looked above; symbolic of him being above all space. In the Linga Purana, Vishnu described Sabasiva as a pillar where the Ishana was the crown, Tatpurusha, the face, Aghora the heart and Vamadeva his sex organ and Sadyojata as his feet. The metaphor had been gathered into a manageable symbol and while many other stories exist for the worship of the phallic symbol of Shiva, this was the beginning.

A story is told located at the legendary ashram of Daruvana. Today some say it is the same place as where the Jageswar temple in Almora stands on the lower Himalayas. Here, some sages were engaged in penance. To test their dedication, Shiva began dancing in the forests. The wives of the sages who had gone to collect firewood remained transfixed. At sundown when the sages cam in search of their wives and caught sight of a man dancing to the joy of their wives, they cursed him, not knowing he was Shiva himself.
lord shiva stories

By the curse, his penis fell to the ground and rose with the brilliance of fire in both directions. The earth trembled and Vishnu and Brahma came to look for solutions. They each went south and north respectively in search of its end, but could not find it; symbolizing both infinity in space and eternity in time. Shiva was then accepted as Supreme by both Brahma and Vishnu and he withdrew.

(Being of the same rank, there are many stories on the quarrels and disputes between Shiva and Vishnu, their assertion of superiority one over another is a debate even today amongst their followers!)

Shiva married twice, once the granddaughter of Brahma, named Sati and then Sati again when she was reborn as Parvati, the daughter of the King of the Himalayas, Daksha. He had two sons, Ganesa and Kartikeya.

One of the derivations of the word Rudra denotes running and constant movement, the pulsation of life, its steps. Therefore Shiva is also perceived as the Cosmic dancer, Nataraja. The magnificent Nataraja who dances though life has won many a hearts and imaginations. Many temples have been built to the Lord Nataraja across Kanakasabha (golden hall) at the temple of Chidambaram.

Of Shiva, one can not write and stop. There are sixty-four lilas or sports in which he is said to have partaken and infinite stories from his tumultuous marriage to his drinking of the poison during the famous incident in Hindu mythology of the churning of the ocean. Through all the myths Shiva emerges the same, powerful, impulsive, angry, frightening, charming, one who holds the damru (drum) either sides of which makes our night and day and one whose ankle bells are the source of all sound. To write on Shiva is as continuous a process as the idea of Shiva himself.