Shiva (auspicious) - One of the three most significant
deities in the Hindu pantheon, together with the deity Vishnu and the Goddess.
All three are remarkable for being almost missing from the
Vedas, and their ascent to power (and subsequent eclipse of the original Vedic
gods) indicates a significant shift in Hindu tradition.
Shiva is the only one of the three who is not named in the
Veda.
He is connected with the god Rudra, who initially appears in
a few late Vedic hymns and is eventually described as the only ultimate deity
underlying all things in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad.
In this upanishad, the term Shiva ("auspicious")
first occurs as an adjective modifiying the feminine noun body.
Despite his presence in the upanishad as a supreme god,
Rudra/status Shiva's is ambiguous.
He is characterized as a skilled archer who lives in the
highlands (away from humans) and is commanded not to hurt either man or beast
with his arrows.
Rudra/Shiva is undoubtedly not a Vedic god, and some have
argued that his origins lay in the Indus Valley civilization, citing as proof
one of the seals discovered at Harappa, an ancient city in Pakistan, depicting
a horned figure sitting cross-legged as if in meditation.
This association is feasible, but it isn't really
persuasive.
He may have joined the pantheon as a deity worshipped by
ascetics, who have historically been connected with mountain settlements.
Shiva is associated with ascetics because of various ascetic
characteristics ascribed to him, such as matted hair and an ash-smeared torso.
His marginal place among the gods might also be explained by
his ascetic background, since he would have been a "outsider" to the
Vedic sacrifice cult, which was the "established" religion at the
time.
Shiva's dramatic entrance into the pantheon occurs during
the account of his wife Sati's death.
In this myth, Shiva's father-in-law Daksha's disparaging
remarks—that Shiva was an ascetic without money, work, or family who was
unsuitable to enter respectable society—led to the destruction of Daksha's
sacrifice as a demonstration of Shiva's power.
Shiva's iconography, mythology, and character have all kept
this ambiguous, sometimes marginal nature.
The fact that he is a god whose nature enables him to pass
transcend competing forces (or dualities) inside himself and the universe by
being the potential of both forces at the same time is perhaps his most
fundamental and significant attribute.
Shiva may symbolize both the wild and hazardous aspect of
life as well as the polished and dignified side.
Atop the one hand, he had the look of a traditional ascetic,
with matted hair, an ash-smeared physique, and a residence on Mount Kailas in
the Himalayas.
He is, on the other side, Hindu society's ideal of a nice husband
who adores his wife Parvati.
He has snakes on his body and is dressed in a bloody
elephant hide, yet he also wears the Ganges River and the crescent moon, which
are symbols of beauty, purity, and auspiciousness.
His mythic deeds emphasize his overwhelming power, which no
foe can stand up to, as well as his sudden and sometimes impetuous temper,
which is best seen in his destruction of Kama, the god of love; however, this
sudden violence contrasts with his grace and favor toward his devotees (bhakta),
for whom he is given the name "quickly satisfied" (Ashutosh), and to
whom he will give almost everything.
He is historically portrayed as the expositor of the
tantras, the most secret and secretive religious practice of all, yet being
shown as simple and without deception (as Bholanath, the "simple
lord").
This transcendence of all polarities may be observed in the
representations that usually depict him, such as his form as Nataraja, which
depicts several of his opposing attributes, or as Ardhanarishvara, which is
half masculine and half female.
The linga, the pillar-shaped item that is his symbolic form,
whose base and shaft are seen as signifying male and female reproductive
organs, exemplifies this transcending of duality.
Finally, the tantric theory of the subtle body (the system
of psychic centers, or chakras, that run throughout the human body), in which
religious practice seeks for the union of Shiva and Shakti, exemplifies this transcendence.
Shiva encompasses all the conflicting possibilities for
human experience, as Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty points out, and in legendary form
gives a resolve that one ordinary human existence can never achieve.
In response to the earlier and more established concept of
Vishnu's avatars, Shiva's adherents created a philosophy of avatars (incar
tures of Shiva who come on earth in the guise of a variety of saints, sages,
and lesser deities to restore balance and do other required deeds).
Shiva's avatars, unlike Vishnu's, do not seem to have been a
mechanism to accommodate minor existing deities within the bigger pantheon.
The most significant of Shiva's twenty-one incarnations is
Hanuman, who is the only one with a well-established separate cult.
The others were sages (such as Durvasas) and prominent
creatures, but unlike Vishnu, the worship of Shiva's avatars has never
overshadowed Shiva's own adoration.
See Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty's Shiva, 1981, and Stella
Kramrisch's The Presence of Shiva, 1981, for further information on Shiva's
mythology.
Also see Shaiva.
~Kiran Atma
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