Mahashivratri, “The Great Night of Shiva” is a night of special spiritual significance.

Sadhguru explains why Mahashivratri is celebrated and how we can make use of this
possibility. Sadhguru: In the Indian culture, at one time, there used to be 365 festivals
in a year. In other words, they just needed an excuse to celebrate every day of the year.
These 365 festivals were ascribed to different reasons, and for different purposes of
life. They were to celebrate various historical events, victories, or certain situations in
life like sowing, planting, and harvesting. For every situation there was a festival. But
Mahashivratri is of a different significance.

What is Mahashivratri and Why it is Celebrated?

Mahashivratri, “The Great Night of Shiva” is the most significant event in India’s
spiritual calendar.
The fourteenth day of every lunar month or the day before the new moon is known as
Shivratri. Among all the twelve Shivratris that occur in a calendar year, Mahashivratri,
the one that occurs in February-March is of the most spiritual significance. On this
night, the northern hemisphere of the planet is positioned in such a way that there is a
natural upsurge of energy in a human being. This is a day when nature is pushing one
towards one’s spiritual peak. It is to make use of this, that in this tradition, we
established a certain festival which is nightlong. To allow this natural upsurge of
energies to find their way,one of the fundamentals of this nightlong festival is to
ensure that you remain awake with your spine vertical throughout the night.

Importance of Mahashivratri
Mahashivratri is very significant for people who are on the spiritual path. It is also
very significant for people who are in family situations, and also for the ambitious in
the world. People who live in family situations observe Mahashivratri as Shiva’s
wedding anniversary. Those with worldly ambitions see that day as the day Shiva
conquered all his enemies.

But, for the ascetics, it is the day he became one with Mount Kailash. He became like
a mountain – absolutely still. In the yogic tradition, Shiva is not worshipped as a God,
but considered as the Adi Guru, the first Guru from whom the science of Yoga
originated. After many millennia in meditation, one day he became absolutely still.
That day is Mahashivratri. All movement in him stopped and he became utterly still,
so ascetics see Mahashivratri as the night of stillness.
Spiritual Significance of Mahashivratri
Legends apart, why this day and night are held with such importance in the yogic
traditions is because of the possibilities it presents to a spiritual seeker. Modern
science has gone through many phases and arrived at a point today where they are out
to prove to you that everything that you know as life, everything that you know as
matter and existence, everything that you know as the cosmos and galaxies, is just one
energy which manifests itself in millions of ways.
This scientific fact is an experiential reality in every yogi. The word “yogi” means one
who has realized the oneness of the existence. When I say “yoga,” I am not referring
to any one particular practice or system. All longing to know the unbounded, all
longing to know the oneness in the existence is yoga. The night of Mahashivratri
offers a person an opportunity to experience this.

Shivratri – The Darkest Night of the Month

Shivratri, is the darkest day of the month. Celebrating Shivratri on a monthly basis,
and the particular day, Mahashivratri, almost seems like celebration of darkness. Any
logical mind would resist darkness and naturally opt for light. But the word “Shiva”
literally means “that which is not.” “That which is,” is existence and creation. “That
which is not” is Shiva. “That which is not” means, if you open your eyes and look
around, if your vision is for small things, you will see lots of creation. If your vision is
really looking for big things, you will see the biggest presence in the existence is a
vast emptiness.

A few spots which we call galaxies are generally much noticed, but the vast emptiness
that holds them does not come into everybody’s notice. This vastness, this unbounded
emptiness, is what is referred to as Shiva. Today, modern science also proves that
everything comes from nothing and goes back to nothing. It is in this context that
Shiva, the vast emptiness or nothingness, is referred to as the great lord, or Mahadeva.
Every religion, every culture on this planet has always been talking about the
omnipresent, all-pervading nature of the divine. If we look at it, the only thing that can
be truly all-pervading, the only thing that can be everywhere is darkness, nothingness,
or emptiness.
Generally, when people are seeking well-being, we talk of the divine as light. When
people are no longer seeking well-being, when they are looking beyond their life in
terms of dissolving, if the object of their worship and their sadhana is dissolution, then
we always refer to the divine as darkness.

Significance of Shivratri
Light is a brief happening in your mind. Light is not eternal, it is always a limited
possibility because it happens and it ends. The greatest source of light that we know
on this planet is the sun. Even the sun’s light, you could stop it with your hand and
leave a shadow of darkness behind. But darkness is all-enveloping, everywhere. The
immature minds in the world have always described darkness as the devil. But when
you describe the divine as all-pervading, you are obviously referring to the divine as
darkness, because only darkness is all-pervading. It is everywhere. It does not need
any support from anything.
Light always comes from a source that is burning itself out. It has a beginning and an
end. It is always from a limited source. Darkness has no source. It is a source unto
itself. It is all-pervading, everywhere, omnipresent. So when we say Shiva, it is this
vast emptiness of existence. It is in the lap of this vast emptiness that all creation has
happened. It is that lap of emptiness that we refer to as the Shiva.

In Indian culture, all the ancient prayers were not about saving yourself, protecting
yourself or doing better in life. All the ancient prayers have always been “Oh lord,
destroy me so that I can become like yourself.” So when we say Shivratri, which is the
darkest night of the month, it is an opportunity for one to dissolve their limitedness, to
experience the unboundedness of the source of creation which is the seed in every
human being.

Mahashivratri – A Night of Awakening

Mahashivratri is an opportunity and a possibility to bring yourself to that experience
of the vast emptiness within every human being, which is the source of all creation.
On the one hand, Shiva is known as the destroyer. On the other, he is known as the
most compassionate. He is also known to be the greatest of the givers. The yogic lore
is rife with many stories about Shiva’s compassion. The ways of expression of his
compassion have been incredible and astonishing at the same time. So Mahashivratri
is a special night for receiving too. It is our wish and blessing that you must not pass
this night without knowing at least a moment of the vastness of this emptiness that we
call as Shiva. Let this night not just be a night of wakefulness, let this night be a night
of awakening for you.
identifying oneself as the relative self is “jiva”, and identifying one with the real
Self (the Soul, the Atma) through awareness is called “Shiva”.

A seeker asked, “If Atma (the Self) was a Shiva, how did it become a jiva?”

Param Pujya Dadashri replied, “Due to wrong belief, it became jiva - that which
lives and dies. One is a Shiva, but illusion has arisen; wrong belief has set in. It
does not take long for jiva to become Shiva. When a Gnani Purush fractures the
wrong belief and replaces it with the right belief, one becomes the Self again, one
becomes Shiva.”

Anyone who attains Atma Gnan (Self Realization) moves from a mortal stage of
jiva to the immortal stage of Shiva.

Param Pujya Dadashri identified another level of attainment of “Shiva”:

“Whoever becomes Kalyan Swaroop (embodiment of salvation) is called Shiva.

(The title) ‘Shiva’ itself means Kalyan Swaroop, or Savior.”

From “Om Namah Shivaya” to

“Shivoham, Shivoham”
Param Pujya Dadashri described that, in jiva dasha (the mortal, ignorant stage),
one considers himself separate from Shiva, and chants “Om Namah Shivaya” (I
bow to Shiva).

After attaining Self Realization, one experiences continuous awareness of the

Self as separate from the body. One remains in a state of “Shivoham, Shivoham”
(I am Shiva, I am Shiva. There is no distinction between Shiva and my true Self).
 Becoming Neelkanth Mahadev
Param Pujya Dadashri once told a seeker, “Whenever a group of us go to visit
Lord Shiva’s temple, we do His darshan (devotional viewing) and sing:

‘Trishul chhataye jagat zera pinaro, Shankar pan hunja ane nilkantha hunja
chhun.’

“Despite possessing a three-pronged weapon (of the mind, speech, and body), I
ingest the world’s poison. I am Shankar and I am also the Neelkanth.”

Param Pujya Dadashri then explained that “Neelkanth” refers to anyone who
swallows the world’s poisons (i.e. insults and abuse) with equanimity. Not only
that, but such a person also intentionally blesses His opponents and oppressors.

“Lord Shiva could swallow all the poisons of the world. Once you make a
decision that you want to drink all the bitterness served to you without hurting the
servers, you will be able to do so. Then, you will become Shankara or Shiva.”

Questioner: I thought that the whole purpose of Yoga was mukti or

liberation but then why is Shiva the Adiyogi known as the destroyer? What is
he trying to destroy?

Sadhguru: Suppose someone told you that another kind of being is coming

from another planet. What will you think? “Maybe he has eight hands. Does
he look like a dog or an elephant?” All your thought process springs only
from what you have experienced till now. So let us not try to understand
what mukti or liberation is because we cannot know what we have not
experienced yet.

Significance of Shiva the Destroyer

First let us understand what bondage is. If you understand what bondage is
and work towards eliminating it, that is liberation. In a way, the spiritual
process is a negative work. That is why in India, we have always worshipped
Shiva as the Destroyer because it is a way of annihilating yourself. Whatever
you consider as yourself right now – the limited proportion that you have
created for yourself in the form of your person, if you can annihilate that,
that is liberation.

All of your personality, whatever you think of yourself and whatever you
believe you are, has come to you only because of your deep identification
with the body and the mind. This identification has become so strong
because the only way you experience life is through the five sense organs. If
the five sense organs go to sleep, neither you nor the world exists in your
experience.

Right now, the limited experience of the sense perceptions is the only way
you are able to experience the world around you and also what is within you.
So your first work is to become dis-identified with the physical body and
mind and that is exactly what Yoga does. The first step with Yoga is always
about how to transcend the sense perception. Once you start experiencing
life beyond the sense perception, naturally the identification with the body
and mind recedes and slowly disappears.

Shiva, the Destroyer of Identity

Shiva, the first teacher of Yoga, is described as a destroyer because unless
you destroy this identity, unless you destroy what is most valuable to you
right now, what is beyond will not happen; that is the biggest barrier. It is a
bubble that you are unwilling to get out of. Your fear is that it might break.
But at the same time, there is something within you which wants to become
unbounded.

What you think of as spirituality is about having an unbounded bubble.

Actually there is no such thing as an unbounded bubble. The only thing is to
prick the bubble. You do not have to blow this bubble so big that it will
contain the whole existence. If you prick it and break it, you are boundless.
All boundaries will be gone.

People think that not being identified with the body and mind means to
dress up in rags, to not have a bath and smell and create problems for
everyone around you. No. Not being identified is one thing; not taking care of
it is something else. You are not identified with it but you still do everything
that you need to do with it. If you are like this then you will become free from
the process of body and mind. These are the only two limitations or
bondages that you have in your life. If you cross these two, you are
unbounded. If you experience yourself as an unbounded being, would not
you call yourself liberated?

Sadhguru: Someone asked me a few days ago if I am a fan of Shiva – the

Adiyogi. A fan club starts when people’s emotions get tangled up with
somebody. I am definitely not his fan. Then what is it? The real thing is
something else, but let me reason this through with you.

Ultimately, in any generation, an individual human being is valued for the

contribution he has made to that generation or generations to come. There
have been many wonderful people on this planet who have contributed to
other people’s lives in many ways. Someone brought a wave of love,
someone brought a wave of meditativeness, someone else brought a wave
of economic wellbeing – depending upon the need of the times.

For example, Mahatma Gandhi – with all respect to him – this is not to belittle
him – because it was pre-independence, his methods, his mode, and the way
he operated elevated him to a certain level. He was the right man and did
incredible things for the time – but he would not always be relevant. Or
Martin Luther King, for those times, since there was discrimination, he was
very significant, but if there had been no such problems in the society, he
would have been just another guy.

If you go back in history, there have been many great men, but they were
significant largely because of the upheavals of the time, the need of the time,
or a certain depravity of the time. If you look at Gautama the Buddha,
because the society got so wrapped up in ritualistic processes, when he came
with a spiritual process without a ritual, it was an instant hit. If this had been
a society without much ritual, it would not have been new in any way and it
would not have been so significant.

In many ways, Krishna was of great significance. But still, if there had been no
strife in that society, if there had been no fight between the Pandavas and
the Kauravas, he would have been only a very local influence. He would not
have become so big. Or a Rama, if his wife had not been kidnapped, he
would have been just another king, maybe remembered as a very good king,
or forgotten by people after some time. If the whole war and the burning of
Lanka had not happened, his life would not have been of much relevance.

The Significance of Adiyogi

The significance of Adiyogi or Shiva is just this – no such event happened.
There was no war, there was no strife. He did not cater to the needs of the
day. He provided tools and methods to evolve human consciousness in such
a way that they are relevant for all times. When people are deprived of food,
love, or peace and you provide them what they lack, you could become the
phenomenon of the day. But when there is no such deprivation, what is
relevant for a human being is ultimately how to enhance himself.

We gave the title Mahadeva only to him, because the intelligence, the vision,
and the knowing behind it are unsurpassable. It does not matter where you
were born, what religion, caste, or creed you are, whether you are a man or
woman – these methods can be made use of forever. Even if people forget
him, they will still have to employ the same methods because he did not
leave anything within the human mechanism unexplored. He did not give a
teaching. He did not give a solution for that time. When people came to him
with those kinds of issues, he just closed his eyes and showed absolute
disinterest.

In terms of perceiving the nature of the human being, in terms of figuring out
a way for every type of human being, it is literally an eternal contribution; it is
not a contribution of the time or for the time. Creation means, what was
nothing got knotted up into something. He figured out a way to unknot this
creation into a non-creation state.

Why Adiyogi was Called Shiva

This is why we gave him the name Shi-va – that means “that which is not.”
When “that which is not” became something or “that which is,” we have called
that dimension Brahma. Shiva was called so because he provided a method,
a mode – not just one but every possible way as to how to attain to ultimate
liberation, which means moving from something to nothing.
Shiva is not a name, it is a description. Like saying that someone is a doctor, a
lawyer, or an engineer, we say he is Shiva, the un-doer of life. This got slightly
misinterpreted as destroyer of life. But in a way it is right. It is just that when
you use the word “destroyer,” people perceive it as something negative. If
somebody had said “liberator,” it would have been perceived as positive.
Slowly, “un-doer” became “destroyer” and people started thinking he is
negative. Call him whatever, he does not care – this is the nature of
intelligence.

If your intelligence rises to a certain height, you will not need any morality.
Only when intelligence is lacking, you must tell people what not to do. If
someone’s intelligence has risen, they need not be told what to do and what
not to do. He did not utter one word as to what to do and what not to do.
The yama and niyama of the Yogic system are Patanjali’s making, not that of
Adiyogi. Patanjali came much later.
Patanjali is relevant to us only because Yoga had diversified into too many
branches, to a point of ridiculousness. Like 25, 30 years ago, if you wanted a
medical check-up, only one doctor was needed. Today you need 12 to 15 –
one for your bones, one for your flesh, one for your blood, one for your
heart, one for your eye – this will go further.

Let’s say in another hundred years, we get into so much specialization that if
you need a medical check-up, you need 150 doctors. Then you will not want
to go, because by the time you get 150 appointments, complete them, and
compute 150 opinions, it will not be worth it. Then somebody will talk about
assimilating all this and making a family physician out of him. This is what
Patanjali did.

They say, close to 1800 branches of Yoga were there at that time. If you had
to go through the whole process, you would have had to attend 1800 schools
and do 1800 different types of Yogas. It became impractical and ridiculous.
So Patanjali came and put it all into 200 sutras to practice only eight limbs of
Yoga. If such a situation had not been there, Patanjali would not be relevant.
That is not the case with Adiyogi or Shiva because no matter what life
situation, he is always relevant. That is why he is Mahadeva.
 Shiva’s Blue Throat
Article About Shiva

One of the many names that Shiva – the Adiyogi is known by is Neelakantha
or the one with the blue throat. Sadhguru explains the symbolism behind
Shiva’s blue throat.

Question: What is the symbolism of Shiva’s blue throat?

Sadhguru: There is a story in the Yogic lore. There was an ongoing conflict

between the gods and the demons. When repeated conflicts happened and
many were being killed, they decided to bring forth the elixir of life or
the amrutha, which was hidden in the oceans and share it among them so
that both of them will become immortal and they can fight joyfully. War is a
terrible business only because it causes much death. If death is handled,
then war is quite a wonderful thing.

They got into a partnership and decided to churn the oceans. The legend
goes on to say that they pulled out a certain peak called Meru and used a
huge snake as a rope to churn it. Initially, when they started churning,
instead of amrutha or the elixir of life, a deadly poison came out from the
bottom of the ocean. This was known as halahal. This deadly poison came up
in huge quantities. All the gods got scared, that if this much poison comes
out, it will destroy the whole world. And there was no one who could do
anything about this.

As usual, when no one is willing to doing anything about it, they thought
Shiva would be the right guy. They asked Shiva to come and showed him the
enormous amount of poison coming out. “If this spreads, it will destroy life.
You must do something.” As usual, without any concern about his own well-
being, he simply drank up the poison. His wife Parvati saw this and she went
and held his throat, so it all stopped at his throat and his throat became all
blue.

The Poison of Prejudice and Symbolism of Shiva’s

Blue Throat
This is a very significant story. This is true with every human being. If you
bore deep enough into every human being, there is only one thing, an ever
expanding life. If they get identified with that, their mind and emotions would
also function like that. But if you touch them on the surface, this is a woman,
this is a man, this is an American, this is an Indian and so many things. This
prejudice is poison. When they churned on the surface, the world’s poison
comes out. Everyone ran away from the poison because no one wants to
touch poison. Shiva drank up the world’s poisons and it stopped right there
at his throat. If it had gone in, he would have been poisoned. But it stopped
at his throat, so that he can spit it out anytime he wants. If it is in your throat,
you can spit it out. If it enters your system, you cannot take it out. Right now,
your nationhood, gender, family, genetic identities, racial identities, religion,
have not stopped at your throat. They have gone into every cell in your body.
The thing is to churn it up, so that it all comes up and you can spit it out and
live here just as a piece of life.

This is the symbolism of Shiva having a blue throat. He stored the world’s
poisons in his throat, ready to spit it out when it has to be taken out. If it
went into his body, then there would be no way to take it out. The entire
spiritual process in a way, is to churn so that all your prejudices come up and
one day we can make you spit it out. If it is deep down, how to take it out? If I
try to take out one of your prejudices, in your experience it feels like your life
is being taken out. If I try to take away your identities with your gender,
children, parents or nation, it feels like your life is being taken out. No, only
the poison of prejudice is being taken out. So it is time to spit out the poison
of prejudice.

Shiva the Perfect Ascetic and Householder

Sadhguru: It is said in the Shiva Purana that Shiva the Adiyogi was a hermit
and a fierce ascetic who roamed the graveyards wearing a garlands of skulls.
He was a very fierce man and no one would dare go near him. Then all the
gods looked at his condition and thought, “If he remains like this, gradually
his energy and his vibrations will influence the whole world and then
everyone will become ascetic. This is good in terms of realization and
liberation, but what about us? Our game will be up. People will not cater to
the things that we want. We cannot play our games, so we must do
something.”

After much coaxing and cajoling, somehow they got him married to Sati.
After this marriage, he became part-householder. There were moments
when he was a very responsible householder; there were moments where he
was an irresponsible drunkard; there were moments when he was so angry
that he could burn the Existence; there were moments when he was so cool
and soothing to the Existence. He kept varying.

Sati was unable to hold him totally, the way he is needed for the world. Then
events proceeded in such a way that she shed her body and Shiva once again
became a very fierce ascetic, even more fierce and determined than before.
Now the danger of the whole world becoming ascetic was even more and the
gods became very worried.

They wanted to trap him into marriage once again. So they worshipped the
mother Goddess and asked her to take the form of Parvati. She took birth as
Parvati with only one goal in her life – to somehow marry Shiva. She grew up
and she tried to entice him in many ways, but it was of no use. Then the gods
made use of Kamadeva to somehow influence Shiva, and in a moment of
melting, he got into the householder state again. From then on he began
playing both the roles of being an ascetic and a householder with
tremendous harmony and balance within himself.

Shiva started teaching Parvati the knowledge of the self. In so many crazy
and intimate ways, he imparted upon her as to how to know the self. Parvati
attained to the highest bliss. But then, as it always happens to anyone, once
you have reached the peak and when you look down, initially you are over-
powered by bliss; afterwards compassion overpowers you and you want to
share it. You want to see that somehow everyone has it.

Why Shiva Became a Householder

The day of Mahashivratri happens to be the day when Shiva and Parvati were
married. Adiyogi was an ascetic whose Ultimate dispassion moved into the
world of passion on this day as he had no fear of entanglement; and this
passion became a means for him to share the depth of his wisdom and
perception.

Parvati looked down at the world and told Shiva, “What you have taught me
is truly wonderful, this must reach everyone. But I can see that the way you
have imparted this knowledge to me, there is no way you can impart this
knowledge to the whole world. You must evolve another kind of method to
give to the world.” That is when Shiva started propounding to the system of
Yoga. He chose seven disciples, who are now celebrated as the Saptarishis.
From that point, Yoga became a science as to how to realize the self, it
became very systematic and scientific so that it could be imparted to
everyone.

Thus Shiva evolved two systems – Tantra and Yoga. He taught his wife Parvati
tantra. Tantra is very intimate, can be done only in very close groups of
people, but Yoga can be imparted to large groups of people. It is more
suitable for the world around us, especially today. So even today Shiva is held
as the first guru of Yoga or the Adi Guru.

Shiva and Vishnu – The Legend of Badrinath

There is a legend about Badrinath. This is where Shiva and Parvati lived. It is
a magnificent place at around 10,000 feet in the Himalayas. One day, Narada
went to Vishnu and said, “You are a bad example for humanity. All the time
you are just lying around on Adishesha, and your wife, Lakshmi, is constantly
serving you and spoiling you silly. You are not a good example for other
creatures on the planet. For all the other beings in the creation, you must do
something more purposeful.”

To escape this criticism and also work for his own upliftment, Vishnu came
down to the Himalayas looking for the right kind of place to do his sadhana.
He found Badrinath, a nice little home, with everything just the way he
thought it should be – an ideal place for his sadhana.
He found a house there and went into it. But then he realized this is Shiva’s
abode – and that man is dangerous. If he gets angry, he is the kind who can
cut off his own throat, not just yours. The man is very dangerous.
So, Vishnu transformed himself into a little child and sat in front of the
house. Shiva and Parvati, who had gone out for a walk, returned home. When
they came back, a little baby was crying at the entrance of their home.
Looking at this child crying his heart out, Parvati’s maternal instincts came up
and she wanted to go pick up the child. Shiva stopped her and said, “Don’t
touch that child.” Parvati replied, “How cruel. How can you say that?”

Shiva said, “This is not a good baby. Why does he land up at our doorstep by
himself? There is no one around, no footprints of parents in the snow. This is
not a child.” But Parvati said, “Nothing doing! The mother in me will not allow
me to let the child be like this,” and she took the baby into the house. The
child was very comfortable, sitting on her lap, looking very gleefully at Shiva.
Shiva knew the consequence of this but he said, “Okay, let’s see what
happens.”

Parvati comforted and fed the child, left him at home and went with Shiva for
a bath in the nearby hot water springs. When they came back, they found the
doors were locked from the inside. Parvati was aghast. “Who has closed the
door?” Shiva said, “I told you, don’t pick up this child. You brought the child
into the house and now he has locked the door.”

Parvati said, “What shall we do?”

Shiva had two options: one was to burn up everything in front of him.
Another was to just find another way and go. So he said, “Let’s go somewhere
else. Because it’s your beloved baby, I cannot touch it.”

This is how Shiva lost his own home and Shiva and Parvati became “illegal
aliens”! They walked around, looking for an ideal place to live and finally
settled down in Kedarnath. Did he not know, you may ask. You know many
things, but you still allow them to happen.

When Vishnu “Rescued” Shiva

There are many stories in the Yogic lore describing Shiva’s indiscriminate
compassion and child-like response to one’s longing. Once, there was an
asura whose name was Gajendra. Gajendra did many austerities and he
earned a boon from Shiva that whenever he called him, Shiva was there with
him. Seeing that Gajendra was calling Shiva for every little thing in his life,
Narada, the ever mischievous sage of the three worlds, played some mischief
with Gajendra.

He told Gajendra, “Why are you calling Shiva off and on? He is responding to
every call of yours. Why don’t you ask him just to enter you and stay there all
the time so that he will always be yours?” Gajendra thought that was a good
idea and accordingly he worshipped Shiva. When Shiva appeared to him, he
said “You must stay within me. You should not go anywhere.” Shiva in his
child-like response entered Gajendra in the form of a linga and stayed there.

Then as time passed, the whole cosmos was missing Shiva. No one knew
where he was. All the devas and ganas started searching for Shiva. Then after
much searching, when no one could espy as to where he was, they went to
Vishnu to find the solution. Vishnu looked at the situation and said, “He is in
Gajendra.” Then the devas asked him how they could get Shiva out of
Gajendra because Gajendra had become immortal carrying Shiva within
himself.

As usual, Vishnu came up with the right kind of trick. The devas dressed up
as Shiva devotees and came about to Gajendra’s kingdom and started
singing Shiva’s praises with great devotion. Gajendra, being a great devotee
of Shiva, invited these people to come and sing and dance in his court. This
group of devas dressed as the devotees of Shiva came and with great
emotion, with great devotion, they sang and worshipped and danced for
Shiva. Shiva, who was sitting inside Gajendra could not hold himself back, he
had to respond. So he tore Gajendra into pieces and came out of him!

Vishnu’s Devotion for Shiva

Shiva is worshipped both by the gods and the rakshasas, the devas and the
asuras, the highest and the lowest – for everybody he is the godhead. Vishnu
himself used to worship him. There is a very beautiful story to describe how
Vishnu was Shiva’s devotee.

Once, Vishnu promised Shiva that he will offer 1008 lotuses to Shiva. He went
in search of lotus flowers, and after searching the whole world, he found only
1007 lotus flowers. One was missing. He came and placed everything in front
of Shiva. Shiva did not open his eyes, he just smiled because one is missing.
Then Vishnu said, “I am known as Kamala Nayana, that means lotus-eyed
Lord. My eyes are as beautiful as any lotus. So I will offer one of my eyes”,
and he immediately plucked out his right eye and placed it on the linga.
Pleased with this kind of offering, Shiva gave Vishnu the famous Sudarshana
Chakra.

How Ganesha was Born

Sadhguru: Shiva was a bit of a vagabond husband. He was constantly going
off wherever his wanderings took him for long periods of many years. There
were no cell phones and emails in those days, so when he went, Parvati had
no contact with him at all. And she grew quite lonely. Moreover, because of
the nature of who Shiva was – he was considered yaksha swarupa or not of
human origin – Parvati could not bear his child.

So, out of her loneliness and her desire and maternal instinct, she decided to
create and breathe life into a baby. She took something of herself, the sandal
paste that was on her body, mixed it with the local soil, made it in the form of
a baby and breathed life into it. This may look far-fetched, but today science
is talking in these terms. If someone were to take an epithelial cell from you,
some day we could make something of you out of it. Parvati breathed life
into it, and a little boy was born.

Why Shiva Cut Ganesha’s Head

A few years later, when the boy was about ten years of age, Shiva returned
with his ganas. Parvati was having a bath, and she had told the little boy,
“Make sure no one comes this way.” The boy had never seen Shiva, so when
he came, the boy stopped him. Shiva was in one of those moods – not willing
to be stopped – so he just took his sword out, took the boy’s head off and
came to Parvati.

When Parvati saw the bloody sword in his hand, she knew what happened.
She saw the boy lying there headless and flew into a rage. Shiva tried to
convince her, “It is okay. He is not really your son. After all, you made him up
and I closed him. So what is the problem?” But she was in no mood to listen.

Why Ganesha Does Not Have an Elephant Head

To settle the issue, Shiva took the head of one of the ganas and put it on the
boy. Ganesh Chaturthi is the day this head transplant happened. Because he
took the head off the leader of the ganas and put it on this boy, he said,
“From now, you are a Ganapati. You are the head of ganas.” Somewhere
down the line, calendar artists could not understand what this other creature
was, and drew an elephant face. The lore talks about how the ganas had
limbs without bones. In this culture, a limb without bones meant an elephant
trunk, so artists made it into an elephant head. You are not going to find an
elephant on the banks of Manasarovar because the terrain is not right. There
is not enough vegetation for an elephant. Shiva could not have gone about
chopping elephants. So, he is many things – Ganesha, Ganapati, Vinayaka –
but not Gajapati.

The ganas were the companions of Shiva. We do not know where they came
from, but generally the lore describes them as beings who do not belong to
this planet. The texture of that life is very different from how we know life
here.

Today, modern biology is very clear about what a phenomenal

transformation it is from a single-celled animal, to all the more complex
forms of life, to what a human being is. But the fundamental nature of life is
the same – it has not changed. It is just getting more complex. However, the
ganas were not of the same texture of life. They were not made on Earth.
And they had limbs without bones.

If you try to use your body in a variety of ways, if you attempt asanas, you
would wish you had no bones. I started my Yoga when I was just 11, so when
I taught Hatha Yoga when I was 25, people looked at me and said, “Oh, you
do not have bones. You are boneless.” This is a dream of every Yogi: that
someday he will have limbs without bones so that he can do any asana he
wants!

The Well-Fed Scholar

For thousands of years, Ganesh Chaturthi has lived on, and Ganapati has
become one of the most popular and most exported gods from India. He is
very flexible. He takes on many forms and poses. He is also the god of
learning. He was supposed to be a brilliant scholar. Ganapati is always shown
with a book and a pen, to show his scholarly capabilities. His scholarship and
intellect was beyond normal human capabilities.

And he liked food. Usually, if someone has to look scholarly, he has to look
skinny. But this is a nice, well-fed scholar. On this day, people generally
believe that all you are supposed to do is eat well. People saw only the big
belly, but missed the much bigger brain in the new head. That is the most
important thing. His belly grew later. Maybe with such a big head, he did not
feel like taking a walk! But the important thing is that his intelligence
multiplied. So this is not just a day for eating. This is a day when you must
multiply your brains, not your belly.

All the Yogic practices in one way are about this, that your intelligence need
not be stuck where it is. There are thousands of examples where people,
starting simple spiritual practices, have multiplied their intelligence in many
different ways. You will not grow a trunk, do not worry, but you can strive for
the multiplication of intelligence.

The Significance of Ganesh Chaturthi

Humanity has always made the serious mistake of working towards
producing good people. We do not need good people; we need sensible
people. If you have sense, you will do the right thing. People do idiotic things
only because they do not have sense.

Intelligence is not shrewdness. Intelligence is not about being clever. If you

are truly intelligent, you would be 100% in tune with the existence because
there is no other way to be intelligent. The sign of intelligence is that you are
absolutely in tune with everything around you, you are going through life
with the least amount of aberration within and outside of you.

Ganesh Chaturthi is a day to at least start striving to multiply your

intelligence. If you work for a boneless limb by doing asanas in the morning,
it may happen!

Shiva and Ganga – The Legend and its Meaning

Sadhguru: As you know, Ganga is supposed to drip from Shiva’s dreadlocks.
There is a saying in Himalayas that every peak is Shiva himself. The
Himalayan peaks are snow-capped, and the many small rivulets that flow out
of these snow-capped mountains slowly assimilate and become streams and
then rivers. This is why they said the mountain is like Shiva, and these
streams flowing down are the dreadlocks and became river Ganga, which
came from the skies – which is very true because snow falls from the skies.

It is that symbolism which has created the legend of Ganga, and it is

considered to be the purest water because it comes from the sky. Above all,
it has acquired a certain quality by flowing through a certain terrain. I have
trekked alone every year in the Himalayas from the age of nineteen, and I
was cold and hungry all the time because I just came without any much
equipment. All I had were denim trousers and a thick T-shirt. I have
experienced this many times that just a few handfuls of Ganga water kept
me going for more than forty-eight hours without any sense of being tired.
And I have heard first hand from many people how their ailments have been
cured just by drinking Ganga water. As you know, in India even if someone
has to die, they need a little Ganga water.

Ganga water can be something very special, not because you believe
something, but simply because the quality of the water is like that. It is the
Himalayas which does something to this water.

A River Is a Living Entity

The legend goes that Ganga is supposed to be a celestial river which landed
on this planet, and the force of it would have caused damage to the world so
Shiva took it on his head and let it flow through his hair gently down the
Himalayan slopes. This is a dialectical expression of what it means to people,
its sanctity. The purity of the river has become the very symbolism of purity
for an Indian. If you are involved with rivers, you would know that every river
has a life of its own. This is true everywhere in the world, whether it is the
Nile in Egypt, Danube in Europe, Volga flowing through Russia and Central
Asian countries, Mississippi in America or the Amazon in South America. They
are not treated as just water bodies. As we know, most cultures evolve from
river banks for obvious reasons, but for people who are closely associated
with the river, it becomes a living entity. It has a personality of its own; it has
its own moods, emotions and eccentricities.
A river is a live process and this is true for Ganga in India too. I have had the
fortune of traveling along Ganga right to its source in Gomukh and also
traveling up almost every one of its major tributaries – like the Mandakini,
the Alakananda and, of course, the Bhagirathi which is the main part of
Ganga. Up in the Himalayas it means sanctity and purity, but as it flows down
into the plains it is the lifeline of the northern plains of the Indian sub-
continent. Ganga has been a witness to any number of dynasties rising and
falling over a period of time. It has been a constant source of strength and
prosperity to people in that part of the country.

Now a time has come where we are thinking of it as a resource and we have
dammed it up in the Himalayas which has hurt a lot of people who look at
Ganga as a live Mother or a goddess. And further down in the plains it is
been hugely polluted. Some efforts are being made by certain concerned
people to once again bring Ganga back to its pristine nature. I have been
traveling to the Himalayas for thirty years and I see that there has been a
great change in the volume of snow. So many of the snowcapped peaks are
no more snow clad, and have just become bare, pointer, jagged edges. There
is a serious danger to Ganga as a river and the receding of the glacier is
happening rapidly which we can clearly see at the very opening of the
Gomukh. It is called Gomukh because it was like a cow’s face. I remember
when I first went there – in the month of August of 1981 – this was just a 15
to 20 feet opening out of which water was spouting, and it very much looked
like a cow’s mouth. Today it is a 200 feet wide cave where you can walk in
almost half a mile if you wish to.

The impact that the climate change is having on the life of Ganga is
phenomenal, and at any point if it threatens the survival of the river, this
could mean a great catastrophe to the northern part of India where it has
always been a lifeline of the people.

The Importance of Saving Ganga

Every culture, every people, every civilization needs some symbolism to
inspire them to bring a different level of sanctity into their lives. Ganga has
been doing this forever and the greatest assembly of human beings happen
on its banks during the Kumbhamelas where more than 8 to 10 crore people
gather. Nowhere else on the planet does such a meeting of human beings
happen. The backbone of this inspiration has always been the Ganga and the
purity that it symbolizes for people. This symbolism is very essential. Saving
this river and keeping this river pure is not only for our survival and our
requirement, but to keep the human spirit up.

Sadhguru: India is the only place where our gods must dance. If they cannot
dance they cannot be gods! This is because the closest analogy you can give
to the phenomenon of creation is that it is like a dance. Today, modern
physicists are using such words – they say creation seems to be in a dance. If
you observe a dance, on the surface, there seems to be no logical coherence
to what is happening. But if you look closely enough, there is a very profound
system to the whole process.

For example, in Indian classical dance, the dancer may seem to be just
moving their hands and legs about at random. On the surface, there seems
to be nothing to it. But if you watch closely enough, there is a very deep
coherence to everything that is happening. If that coherence was absent, you
would not enjoy the dance. To be able to do seemingly illogical things like
throwing your hands and legs around, but still have an absolute coherence to
everything that you want to depict takes years of training and practice. If the
dance has that geometric aesthetic, it will impact the viewers in a certain way,
though they may not know the story or understand what the dance is. The
same goes for music in a different dimension.

Physicists are also coming to this. Creation seems to be absolutely random

and accidental, but with closer observation, everything seems to be
synchronized in some way. There is some kind of coherence to everything,
which they are still not able to figure out. The only reason Yoga is even
possible is because there is a coherence between the individual life and the
larger manifestation of creation. If there was no coherence, you could not
become one. There would be no possibility of union if there was no
coherence.

Shiva, Nataraja & Physics

One of the theories that is being thrown around in science over the last few
years is Constructal theory. What they say is that whether you take an atom,
a human being, an elephant or the cosmos – the fundamental design is the
same. It is only the complexity that increases in sophistication.

This is something we have always said in Yoga. The microcosm and the
macrocosm are essentially the same design. It is from this that the yogic
practices began. We said anda, pinda, and brahmanda – the ingredient that
makes this life, the individual person, and the cosmos – are three
manifestations of the same thing. They are all in the same synchronicity. And
because it is the same design, you can put one into the other. You can eat a
carrot and make it into a human being because it is the same design.

The nearest analogy and the closest description you can give for the way the
cosmos is functioning is that it is a dance, because it all seems to be at
random, but there is perfect organization and synchronicity behind it. It is
just that most people’s idea of organization is too intellectual and divisive.
For example, let us take a nice, manicured garden and a forest. A garden
means everything is organized. A forest means no organization. But if you do
not attend to the garden for three months, it will be gone. But a forest can
live for millions of years without your attention. So which would you consider
as better organization?

At the Chidambaram temple, there is the Nataraja, Shiva as the Lord of

Dance. Natesha or Nataraja is one of the most significant forms of Shiva.
When I visited CERN in Switzerland, which is the physics laboratory on the
planet, where all the atom-smashing takes place, I saw that there is a
Nataraja statue in front of the entrance, because they identified that there is
nothing in human culture which is closer to what they are doing right now.

Nataraja: The Cosmic Dancer

Because creation is a dance, we said the divine is a dancer. If he is not a
dancer, how could he make this dance happen? When we say Shiva is
Nataraja, we are not talking about an individual dancing. You might have
noticed that in the depiction of Nataraja, there is a circle around him. The
circle is always the symbol of the cosmos because when anything moves, the
most natural form that happens in the existence is a circle. Anything that
happens by itself is a circle or an ellipsoid – which is a slightly distorted circle
–because a circle is the shape of least resistance. The planet, the moon, the
sun, these are all circles.

This is why the circle around Nataraja symbolizes the cosmos. He is a cosmic
dancer. That is how he is always described. This is not about an individual
dancing across the cosmos. We say the cosmos is in a dance and the dance is
guided by a certain intelligence. Since we are individuals and we understand
everything as separate life forms, we individualize it as Nataraja for our own
perception. The word “Shiva” literally means “that which is not” or “that which
is nothing.” It is nothing, it is empty space, but it is dancing. Because it is
dancing, everything is happening.

Nataraja: A Significant Form of Shiva

The Nataraja form essentially comes from Southern India, particularly from
Tamil Nadu. It represents the exuberance of creation, the dance of creation
which self-created itself from the eternal stillness. Nataraja standing in
Chidambaram is very symbolic because what you call as Chidambaram is just
absolute stillness. That is what is enshrined in the form of this temple.

You cannot understand the dance because everything that you understand
will only be a wrong conclusion. But you can experience the aesthetic of the
dance, or you can become the dance. If you experience the beauty of the
dance by observation, we say you are a seeker. In society, you may be called
by different names – maybe a scientist – but still you are a seeker. You want
to know what it is, so you are paying attention. If you become the dance, you
become the divine, you become a yogi. That is the choice you have.

The dance is so perfect that we almost forget the dancer, but there can be no
dance without a dancer. We cannot see the dancer because our vision, our
attention becomes so surface-oriented. To identify the dancer in the dance,
either you must get so immersed in the dance that you also become the
dance, that you are not a spectator, you are it. Then you know the dancer by
experience, you are touched by him. But if you want to know the dancer in
his full depth and dimension, you want to know the source of dance, that
which is the basis of the act – then you must be able to pay absolute
attention, in a way staying away from the dance. These things look
contradictory. On one level I am saying you must plunge into the dance, on
another level I am saying you must be able to watch the dance with utmost
intensity. They are not contradictory. It is just that when you look at it
fragmented, if you cut it down into pieces and look at it, everything seems to
be contradictory.

Become the Dance!

If you are totally involved in the dance, totally involved in the act itself, that is
one way of knowing. Or if you know how to keep away from the act,
absolutely uninvolved in the act, but you are able to observe the act totally,
you can decipher the difference between the act and the actor, the dance
and the dancer, that is also a way of knowing it. The second approach takes
much more awareness, sharpness, intensity and training, so it is easier to
become part of the dance. Slowly as the rhythm picks up, as you get sucked
deeper and deeper into it, one day you will not know which is you and which
is the dance. Once you are a part of the dance, you cannot miss the presence
of the dancer.

Meaning of Shiva
When we say “Shiva,” there are two fundamental aspects that we are referring to. The
word “Shiva” means literally, “that which is not.”

Shiva is Nothingness
Today, modern science is proving to us that everything comes from nothing and goes
back to nothing. The basis of existence and the fundamental quality of the cosmos is vast
nothingness. The galaxies are just a small happening – a sprinkling. The rest is all vast
empty space, which is referred to as Shiva. That is the womb from which everything is
born, and that is the oblivion into which everything is sucked back. Everything comes
from Shiva and goes back to Shiva.

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Shiva is Darkness
So Shiva is described as a non-being, not as a being. Shiva is not described as light, but
as darkness. Humanity has gone about eulogizing light only because of the nature of the
visual apparatus that they carry. Otherwise, the only thing that is always, is darkness.
Light is a limited happening in the sense that any source of light – whether a light bulb or
the sun – will eventually lose its ability to give out light. Light is not eternal. It is always
a limited possibility because it happens and it ends. Darkness is a much bigger possibility
than light. Nothing needs to burn, it is always – it is eternal. Darkness is everywhere. It is
the only thing that is all pervading.
But if I say “divine darkness,” people think I am a devil worshiper or something. In fact,
in some places in the West it is being propagated that Shiva is a demon! But if you look at
it as a concept, there isn’t a more intelligent concept on the planet about the whole
process of creation and how it has happened. I have been talking about this in scientific
terms without using the word “Shiva” to scientists around the world, and they are
amazed, “Is this so? This was known? When?” We have known this for thousands of
years. Almost every peasant in India knows about it unconsciously. He talks about it
without even knowing the science behind it.
 

Meaning of Adiyogi – The First Yogi

On another level, when we say “Shiva,” we are referring to a certain yogi, the Adiyogi or
the first yogi, and also the Adi Guru, the first Guru, who is the basis of what we know as
the yogic science today. Yoga does not mean standing on your head or holding your
breath. Yoga is the science and technology to know the essential nature of how this life is
created and how it can be taken to its ultimate possibility.

This first transmission of yogic sciences happened on the banks of Kanti Sarovar, a
glacial lake a few miles beyond Kedarnath in the Himalayas, where Adiyogi began a
systematic exposition of this inner technology to his first seven disciples, celebrated
today as the Sapta Rishis. This predates all religion. Before people devised divisive ways
of fracturing humanity to a point where it seems almost impossible to fix, the most
powerful tools necessary to raise human consciousness were realized and propagated.

One and the Same

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So “Shiva” refers to both “that which is not,” and Adiyogi, because in many ways, they
are synonymous. This being, who is a yogi, and that non-being, which is the basis of the
existence, are the same, because to call someone a yogi means he has experienced the
existence as himself. If you have to contain the existence within you even for a moment
as an experience, you have to be that nothingness. Only nothingness can hold everything.
Something can never hold everything. A vessel cannot hold an ocean. This planet can
hold an ocean, but it cannot hold the solar system. The solar system can hold these few
planets and the sun, but it cannot hold the rest of the galaxy. If you go progressively like
this, ultimately you will see it is only nothingness that can hold everything. The word
“yoga” means “union.” A yogi is one who has experienced the union. That means, at least
for one moment, he has been absolute nothingness.
When we talk about Shiva as “that which is not,” and Shiva as a yogi, in a way they are
synonymous, yet they are two different aspects. Because India is a dialectical culture, we
shift from this to that and that to this effortlessly. One moment we talk about Shiva as the
ultimate, the next moment we talk about Shiva as the man who gave us this whole
process of yoga.

Who Shiva is Not!

Unfortunately, most people today have been introduced to Shiva only through Indian
calendar art. They have made him a chubby-cheeked, blue-colored man because the
calendar artist has only one face. If you ask for Krishna, he will put a flute in his hand. If
you ask for Rama, he will put a bow in his hand. If you ask for Shiva, he will put a moon
on his head, and that’s it!
Every time I see these calendars, I always decide to never ever sit in front of a painter.
Photographs are all right – they capture you whichever way you are. If you look like a
devil, you look like a devil. Why would a yogi like Shiva look chubby-cheeked? If you
showed him skinny it would be okay, but a chubby-cheek Shiva – how is that?
In the yogic culture, Shiva is not seen as a God. He was a being who walked this land and
lived in the Himalayan region. As the very source of the yogic traditions, his contribution
in the making of human consciousness is too phenomenal to be ignored. Every possible
way in which you could approach and transform the human mechanism into an ultimate
possibility was explored thousands years ago. The sophistication of it is unbelievable.
The question of whether people were so sophisticated at that time is irrelevant because
this did not come from a certain civilization or thought process. This came from an inner
realization. This had nothing to do with what was happening around him. It was just an
outpouring of himself. In great detail, he gave a meaning and a possibility of what you
could do with every point in the human mechanism. You cannot change a single thing
even today because he said everything that could be said in such beautiful and intelligent
ways. You can only spend your lifetime trying to decipher it.

Sadhguru: Shiva has numerous forms that encompass every possible quality

that the human mind can and cannot imagine. Some are wild and fierce.
Some are enigmatic. Others are endearing and charming. From the naïve
Bholenath to the fearsome Kalabhairava, from the beautiful Somasundara to
the terrible Aghora – Shiva embraces every possibility, remaining untouched
by it all. Among all these, there are five fundamental forms.

 Five Fundamental Forms of Shiva

 Yoga Yoga Yogeshwaraya
 Bhuta Bhuta Bhuteshwaraya
 Kala Kaleshwaraya
 Shiva Shiva Sarveshwaraya
 Shambho Shambho Mahadevaya
 The Yogeshwara Form

Being on the path of Yoga means you have come to a phase in your life
where you have felt the limitations of being physical, you have felt the need
to go beyond the physical – you have felt restrained even by this vast
cosmos. You are able to see that if you can be restrained by a small
boundary, you can also be restrained by a huge boundary at some point. You
do not have to criss-cross the cosmos to experience this. Sitting here, you
know if this boundary restrains you, if you crisscross the cosmos, that will
also restrain you after some time – it is only a question of your ability to
travel distances. Once your ability to travel distances is enhanced, any kind of
boundary will be a restriction for you. Once you have understood and known
this, once you have felt this longing that cannot be fulfilled by mastering
physical creation, you are on the path of Yoga. Yoga means to breach the
barrier of physical creation. Your effort is not just to master the physicality of
existence, but to breach its boundary and touch a dimension that is not
physical in nature. You want to unite that which is bound and that which is
boundless. You want to dissolve the boundary into the boundless nature of
existence.

The Bhuteshwara Form of Shiva

The physical creation, all that we can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch – the
very body, the planet, the universe, the cosmos – everything is just a play of
five elements. Only with five ingredients, what a magnificent mischief called
creation! With only five elements that you can count on one hand, how many
things are being created! Creation could not be more compassionate. If there
were five million ingredients, you would be lost.

Gaining mastery over these five elements, which are known as the pancha
bhutas, is everything – your health, your wellbeing, your power in the world
and your ability to create what you want. Knowingly or unknowingly,
consciously or unconsciously, individual people attain to some level of
control or mastery over these different elements. How much control or
mastery they have determines the nature of their body, the nature of their
mind, the nature of what they do, how successfully they do it and how far
they can see. Bhuteshwaraya means that one who has mastery over the
pancha bhutas determines the destiny of his life, at least in the physical
realm.

The Kaleshwara Form

Kala means time. Even if you have mastered the five elements, become one
with the boundless, or you know dissolution – as long as you are here, time is
ticking away. Mastering time is a completely different dimension. Kala does
not just mean time, it also means darkness. Time is darkness. Time cannot be
light because light travels in time. Light is a slave of time. Light is a
phenomenon that has a beginning and an end. Time is not that kind of
phenomenon. In the Hindu way of life, they have a very sophisticated
understanding of time as six different dimensions. One thing you have to
know – as you sit here, your time is ticking away. The Tamil expression for
death is very good – “Kalam aayitanga,” meaning “his time is up.”

In English, we also used such an expression in the past – “he expired.” Like a
drug or anything else, a human being also comes with an expiry date. You
may think you are going to so many places. No, as far as your body is
concerned, it is going straight to the grave without deviating for a moment.
You can slow down this process a bit, but it will not change direction. As you
are getting older, you can see the earth tries to suck you back. Life completes
its turn.

Time is a special dimension of life – it does not fit into the other three
dimensions. And of all the things in the universe, it is the most elusive stuff.
You cannot pin it down, because it is not. It does not exist in any form of
existence that you know. It is the most powerful dimension of creation, which
holds the whole universe together. Because of this, modern physics is
clueless about how gravity functions. There is no gravity; it is time which
holds everything together.

Shiva – Sarveshwara – Shambho

Shiva means “that which is not; that which is dissolved.” That which is not is
the basis of everything, and that is the boundless Sarveshwara. Shambho is
just a key, a passage. If you can utter it in a way that your body tears up, it
will become a passage. If you want to master all these aspects and get there,
it will take a long time. If you only want to take the passage, you can
transcend these aspects not by mastery, but by sneaking in.

When I was a young boy, I had friends in the Mysore Zoo. On Sunday
mornings, with my two rupees pocket money, I used to go to the fish market
– deep inside – where they sold the half rotten fish. For two rupees, I
sometimes got two to three kilograms of fish. I put them in a plastic bag and
took them to the Mysore Zoo. I did not have any more money. The ticket at
that time was one rupee if you walked in straight through the gate. There
was also a barrier about two feet above the ground. If you were willing to
crawl, it was for free. That was not a problem for me – I crawled. I spent the
whole day there feeding all my friends with the rotten fish.

If you want to walk straight, it is a tough path and a whole lot of work. If you
are willing to crawl, there are easier ways. Those who are of the crawling kind
do not have to worry about mastering anything. Live as long as you live.
When you die, you go and reach the Ultimate.

There is a certain beauty, an indescribable aesthetic in mastering even

something simple. Kicking a ball for example, even a child can do. But when
someone masters that, suddenly there is an aesthetic to it that makes half
the world sit up and watch. If you want to know and enjoy mastery, there is
work to do. But if you are willing to crawl, it is simply Shambho.

Shiva’s Forms in the Yogic Tradition

The Bholenath Form of Shiva
Shiva is always seen as a very powerful being, and at the same time, as one
who is not so crafty with the world. So, one form of Shiva is known as
Bholenath, because he is childlike. Bholenath means the innocent or even
the ignorant. You will find that most intelligent people are very easily taken
for a ride because they cannot subject their intelligence to petty things. A
very low level of intelligence that is crafty and shrewd can easily outsmart an
intelligent person in the world. That may mean something in terms of money
or society, but it does not mean anything in terms of life.

When we say intelligence, we are not looking at just being smart. We are
looking at allowing that dimension which makes life happen, to be in full
flow. Shiva is like this too. It is not that he is stupid, but he does not care to
use intelligence in all those petty ways.

The Nataraja Form of Shiva

Natesha or Nataraja, Shiva as the Lord of Dance, is one of the most
significant forms of Shiva. When I visited CERN in Switzerland, which is the
physics laboratory on the planet, where all the atom-smashing takes place, I
saw that there is a Nataraja statue in front of the entrance, because they
identified that there is nothing in human culture which is closer to what they
are doing right now.

The Nataraja form represents the exuberance and dance of creation which
self-created itself from eternal stillness. Nataraja standing in the
Chidambaram temple is very symbolic because what you call as
Chidambaram is just absolute stillness. That is what is enshrined in the form
of this temple. The classical arts are to bring this absolute stillness into a
human being. Without stillness, true art cannot come.

The Ardhanarishvara Form

Generally, Shiva is referred to as the ultimate man, but in the
Ardhanarishvara form, one half of him is a fully developed woman. What is
being said is that if the inner masculine and feminine meet, you are in a
perpetual state of ecstasy. If you try to do it on the outside, it never lasts, and
all the troubles that come with that are an ongoing drama. Masculine and
feminine does not mean male and female. These are certain qualities.
Essentially, it is not two people longing to meet but two dimensions of life
longing to meet – outside as well as inside. If you achieve it inside, the
outside will happen 100% by choice. Otherwise, the outside will be a terrible
compulsion.

This is a symbolism to show that if you evolve in your ultimate context, you
will be half a man and half a woman – not a neuter, a full-fledged man and a
full-fledged woman. That is when you are a full-blown human being.

The Kalabhairava Form

Kalabhairava is a deadly form of Shiva – when he went into a mode of
destroying time. All physical realities exist within the span of time. If I destroy
your time, everything is over.

Shiva put on the right kind of costume and became Kalabhairava, to create
the Bhairavi Yatana. “Yatana” means ultimate suffering. When the moment of
death comes, many lifetimes play out with great intensity, whatever pain and
suffering needs to happen to you, will happen in a microsecond. After that,
nothing of the past remains in you. Undoing your “software” is painful. But
this happens at the moment of death, so you have no choice. He makes it as
brief as possible, suffering has to end quickly. That will happen only if we
make it super-intense. If it is mild, it goes on forever.

Adiyogi
In the yogic tradition, Shiva is not worshiped as a God. He is the Adiyogi, the
first Yogi, and Adi Guru, the First Guru from whom the yogic sciences
originated. The first full moon of Dakshinayana is Guru Purnima, when
Adiyogi began the transmission of these sciences to the Saptarishis, his first
seven disciples.

This predates all religion. Before people devised divisive ways of fracturing
humanity, the most powerful tools necessary to raise human consciousness
were realized and propagated. Their sophistication is unbelievable. The
question of whether people were so sophisticated at that time is irrelevant
because this did not come from a certain civilization or thought process. This
came from an inner realization. It was just an outpouring of Adiyogi himself.
You cannot change a single thing even today because he said everything that
could be said in such beautiful and intelligent ways. You can only spend your
lifetime trying to decipher it.

The Triambaka Form of Shiva

Shiva has always been referred to as Triambaka because he has a third eye.
A third eye does not mean a crack in the forehead. It simply means that his
perception has reached its ultimate possibility. The third eye is the eye of
vision. The two physical eyes are just sensory organs. They feed the mind
with all kinds of nonsense because what you see is not the truth. You see this
person or that person and you think something about him, but you are not
able to see Shiva in him. So, another eye, an eye of deeper penetration, has
to be opened up.

Any amount of thinking and philosophizing will never bring clarity into your
mind. Anyone can distort the logical clarity that you create; difficult situations
can completely put it into turmoil. Only when vision opens up, only when you
have an inner vision, will there be perfect clarity.

What we refer to as Shiva is nothing but the very embodiment of ultimate

perception. It is in this context that the Isha Yoga Center celebrates
Mahashivratri. It is an opportunity and a possibility for all to raise their
perception by at least one notch. This is what Shiva is about and this is what
Yoga is about. It is not a religion; it is the science of inner evolution.

When Shiva Opened His Third Eye

There is a story about how Shiva opened his third eye. In India, there is a god
of love and lust called Kamadeva. Kama means lust. Lust is something that
most people do not like to face head on. You want some aesthetics around it,
so you make it love! The story goes that Kama hid behind a tree and shot an
arrow at Shiva’s heart. Shiva got a little disturbed. So he opened his third eye,
which is a fiery eye, and burnt Kama to ashes. This is the story that is
generally told to everyone.

But please ask yourself, does your lust arise within you or behind a tree? It
arises within you, of course. Lust is not just about the opposite sex. Every
desire is lust, whether it is for sexuality, power or position. Lust essentially
means there is a sense of incompleteness within you, a longing for
something that makes you feel, “If I don’t have that, I am not complete.”

Shiva’s Third Eye: The Yogic Dimension

Based on this, the story of Shiva and Kama has a yogic dimension to it. Shiva
was working towards Yoga, which means he was not just working towards
being complete, but towards being limitless. Shiva opened his third eye and
saw Kama, his own lust, coming up and burnt it. Ash slowly oozed out of his
body, showing that everything within was laid to rest for good. By opening up
the third eye, he perceived a dimension within himself which is beyond the
physical, and all the compulsions of the physical dropped away.

What is Shiva’s Third Eye?

The third eye refers to an eye which can see that which is not physical. If you
look at your hand, you can see it because it stops and reflects light. You
cannot see the air because it does not stop light. But if there was a little
smoke in the air, you would be able to see it because you can see only that
which stops light. You cannot see anything that allows light to pass through.
This is the nature of the two sensory eyes.

The sensory eyes can grasp that which is physical. When you want to see
something that is not physical in nature, the only way to look is inward. When
we refer to the “third eye”, we are symbolically talking about seeing
something that the two sensory eyes cannot see.

The sensory eyes are outward-oriented. The third eye is to see your
interiority – the nature of yourself and your existence. It is not some extra
appendage or crack in your forehead. That dimension of perception through
which one can perceive that which is beyond the physical is referred to as the
third eye.

Looking At Life Through The Third Eye

Another aspect is that the sensory eyes are deeply contaminated by karma.
Karma means the residual memory of past actions. Everything that you see is
influenced by this karmic memory. You cannot help it. If you look at
someone, you will think, “He is nice, he is not nice, he is good, he is bad.” You
will not be able to see anything the way it is because the karmic memory
influences this vision and your ability to see. It will only show you everything
the way your karma is, the way your past memories are.

To be able to see everything just the way it is, an eye of deeper penetration –
which is unsullied by memory – has to be opened up. Traditionally in India,
knowing does not mean reading books, listening to someone’s talks or
gathering information. Knowing means to open up a new vision or insight
into life. No amount of thinking and philosophizing can bring clarity to your
mind. The logical clarity that you create can easily be distorted. Difficult
situations can throw it completely into turmoil.

Perfect clarity arises only when your inner vision opens up. No situation or
person in the world can distort this clarity within you. For true knowing to
arise, your third eye has to open up.

Editor’s Note: In this article, Sadhguru talks about two ways to open the third
eye.

If you are look at the evolutionary development of various species you will
notice that moving from invertebrate to vertebrate is one significant step and
other significant step in the evolutionary process is a spine moving from
horizontal position to vertical position.

The True development of the brain happened only after the spine became
vertical.On this day,where there is a natural upsurge of energy,keeping the
spine vertical throughout the night has immense benefits.

The Mahashivratri is a tremendous possibility for one to heighten his

perception.It is my wish and blessing that you must make use of the coming
Mashashivratri night to enhance your perception to have a taste of a larger
slice of the life.

Story 1: Shiva and the Bullock Cart

Sadhguru: It happened some three hundred years ago. There was a devotee
in the southern regions of Karnataka whose mother was ageing. She wanted
to go to Kashi and die in the lap of Vishvanath, the lap of Shiva. She had
never asked for anything in her life but this one thing, she requested from
her son. She said, “Please take me to Kashi. I’m getting old. I want to go there
and die.”

The man took this old mother and started walking through the jungles from
southern Karnataka to Kashi – a long distance. Being an old lady, the mother
fell ill. So he carried her on his shoulder and obviously he was soon sapped
of energy. The only way he could keep himself going was by pleading, “Shiva,
please do not let me fail in this one endeavor. This is one thing that my
mother asked, let me fulfill this. I want to take her to Kashi. We are only
coming there for you. Please give me the strength.”

Then as he was walking, he heard a bell, like when a bullock cart comes
behind you. He saw a bullock cart drawn by a single bull coming out of the
mist, which was strange because in that region, you will see a single bull
pulling a cart only when it is travelling a short distance. When the travel is
over long distances, through forests, it is always two bulls. But when you are
so tired, you do not care about these nuances. As the cart came closer, he
could not see the face of the driver as the driver was cloaked and it was
misty.

The man said, “Please, my mother is not well. Could we can ride on your
empty cart?” The man nodded. Both of them got on and the cart traveled on.
After sometime, the man noticed it was too smooth a ride for a forest track.
Then he looked down and noticed that the cart wheels were not turning.
They were still. But the cart was moving! Then he looked at the bull. The bull
was sitting and still the cart was going. Then he looked at the driver. Only the
cloak was visible. There was no man. He looked at his mother. The mother
said, “You fool, we are already there. There is no need to go anywhere. This is
the place, let me go.” And the mother left her body there. The bull, the cart
and the driver vanished!

The man returned to his village. People thought, “He has come back so soon.
He must have dumped his mother somewhere. He did not take her to Kashi.”
They asked him, “Where did you dump your mother?” He said “No, we did not
have to go, Shiva came for us.” They said “Rubbish!” He said, “It does not
matter what you think. He came for us and that is all. My life is lit. I know that
within myself. If you do not know. it is up to you.” Then they asked, “Okay,
then show us something. Somehow show it to us that you actually saw Shiva.
That he came for you.” He said, “I do not know because I did not see him. I
only saw a cloak and there was no face. There was nothing, it was empty.”

Then everyone suddenly noticed that this man was not there. They saw only
his clothes. He became a great sage in South India. Wherever he went,
people recognized him as an empty face.

Story 2: Malla: A Shiva Devotee and a Thief

Sadhguru: Let me tell you of one yogi who lived very close to the place
where I was born. I had heard about this person and the phenomena that
happened there, but as a youth I did not pay much attention to it. It sort of
gave me a kick, but I did not give much more importance to it at that time.

There was a devotee who lived about 16 kilometers from Mysore, on the
outskirts of the now-famous Nanjangud. His name was Malla. Malla did not
belong to any tradition or know any formal way of worship or meditation.
But right from his childhood, if he closed his eyes, he only saw the image of
Shiva. Maybe a devotee is not a good enough word for him. There are
millions like him. They are prisoners of Shiva. They have no choice. Maybe I
also got trapped by him. We did not seek him – too arrogant to seek
anything, but trapped by him. Shiva was a hunter. He snared not just animals
but human beings too. This was one more.

Malla knew nothing but Shiva. He did not learn any particular trade or craft
and he grew wild. It did not occur to him that it would be wrong if he stopped
someone and took whatever he needed from them. So he did just that, and
got branded as a bandit.

He became a regular bandit on the forest pathway which people had to use.
The place where he used to collect his “toll” came to be known as
Kallanamoolai, which means “a thief’s corner.” Initially people cursed him, but
when the end of the year came, every paisa that he had collected from
people was spent on celebrating Mahashivratri. He threw a huge party!
So after a few years, people recognized him as a great devotee and started
contributing voluntarily. Those who did not contribute voluntarily, he had no
qualms about encouraging them!

A few years later, two yogis who happened to be brothers came this way, and
saw this man who was a bandit but a great devotee. They told him, “Your
devotion is fantastic, but your ways are hurting people.” He said, “I am only
doing it for Shiva, what is the problem?” They convinced him, took him aside
and put him into other systems, and renamed the place from Kallanamoolai
to Mallanamoolai. Even today it is called Mallanamoolai. And the
Mahashivratri event that he celebrated evolved into a big institution in that
place.

Within about a year-and-a-half from the time he gave up his banditry and sat
with these yogis, he attained Mahasamadhi. After they released him like this,
these two yogis also sat down and left their body on the same day. Today
there is a very beautiful shrine built for these people, still called
Mallanamoolai, on the bank of river Kabini.

Story 3: How Kubera Became Shiva’s “Greatest” Devotee

Sadhguru: Kubera was the king of Yakshas. Yakshas are intermediate life –

they are neither life here nor have they become afterlife – they are
intermediate. The story goes that Ravana expelled Kubera from Lanka, and
Kubera had to flee to the mainland. Out of desperation for his lost kingdom
and people, he started worshipping Shiva and became a Shiva bhakta – a
devotee of Shiva.

Shiva, out of his compassion, gave him another kingdom and all the wealth in
the world and Kubera became the richest being in the world. Wealth means
Kubera – that’s how it is seen. Kubera became a great devotee and when a
devotee begins to feel that he is a great devotee, he has lost everything.
Kubera started to feel that he was a great devotee because he was making
such enormous amounts of offerings to Shiva. Shiva of course never picked
up anything, except the sacred ash that was offered to him. But Kubera felt
like a great devotee because he was offering so much.

One day, Kubera came to Shiva and said, “What can I do for you? I want to do
something for you.” Shiva said, “Oh, you cannot do anything for me. What
can you do for me? Because I don’t need anything, I’m fine. But take my son.”
He showed Ganapati and said, “This boy is always hungry. Feed him well.”
Kubera said, “That’s no problem,” and took Ganapati for lunch. They served
him, he ate and ate and ate. They kept serving him and he kept eating.
Kubera hired hundreds of cooks and started cooking enormous amounts of
food. They served all this food and he kept eating.

Kubera was alarmed. “Stop it!” he said. “If you eat like this, your belly will
burst.” Ganapati said, “Don’t you worry. See I have this snake as my belt. You
don’t have to worry about my belly. I’m hungry. Serve me. You were the one
who said you’ll take care of my hunger!”
Kubera spent all his wealth. They say he sent people to other worlds to buy
food, and they served food. But Ganapati just ate and said, “I am not yet full,
where is more food?” Then Kubera realized the smallness of his mind and
bowed down to Shiva, “My riches, I know, are not equal to the speck of dust
for you. I made the mistake of thinking I am a great devotee, just giving back
a little of what you have already given to me.” And his life moved in a
different direction from that moment.

Story 4: Shiva as Ardhanari and Brighu Maharishi

Sadhguru: When we say Yoga, we are not talking about a particular exercise

or a technique. We are talking about the very science of creation and how to
take this piece of creation to its ultimate possibility. We are talking about a
science and a technology through which we can make every aspect of our life
into an ultimate possibility.

When Shiva started transmitting Yoga and expounding the nature of the
existence to the Saptarishis or seven sages, a beautiful incident happened.
One of the seven sages who later came to be known as Brighu Maharishi was
an ardent devotee of Shiva. To this first Yoga program that was happening on
the banks of Kanti Sarovar, the lake of Grace, Parvati was also a witness.
Brighu as usual came in the morning and he wanted to circumambulate
Shiva. Parvati was sitting close by, but Brighu walked between them and
circumambulated only Shiva. He wanted to do his Pradakshina only to Shiva,
not Parvati.
Shiva was amused by this but Parvati was not amused. She did not like this.
She looked at Shiva, Shiva said, “Move closer, he will go around you.” Parvati
moved closer. Brighu saw there was not enough space for him to go around
Shiva alone, so he converted himself into a mouse and went around Shiva
alone, excluding Parvati from the circumambulation.

Parvati was very irritated by this. Then to please her, Shiva took Parvati and
placed her upon his lap. Brighu converted himself into a tiny bird and went
around just Shiva alone excluding Parvati. By now Parvati was fuming, so
Shiva pulled her into himself and made her a part of himself, that is one part
of him became Parvati, another part of him remained Shiva. He became an
Ardhanari.

Brighu saw this and converted himself into a bee and went around only the
right leg. This childish devotion of Brighu was amusing, but at the same time,
Shiva did not want Brighu to be lost in his devotion and miss the ultimate
nature of the existence. So he got into the Yogic posture of Siddhasana
where there was no way for him to circumambulate his leg or any other part
of his body. If he has to do it, he has to do it for both these principles of
feminine and masculine.

What this story is conveying is that when we say Yoga, we are talking about a
dimension which is all-inclusive. It is not an exercise or a process for creating
health. It is about ultimate wellbeing of the human being in which you cannot
exclude any aspect of life. It is about attaining to a dimension beyond all
dimensions. It is about a system to use your own existing system – your
body, mind, emotion and energies – as a ladder to the divine. It is a method
to make yourself into a stepping stone towards your ultimate nature.

Sadhguru:

There is a beautiful story in the yogic lore. The wedding between Shiva the
Adiyogi and Parvati was a grand affair. Since Parvati was a princess, the
“who’s who” of the region were invited – kings and queens, gods and
goddesses, each in their finery, one more beautiful than the other.

And then came the groom, Shiva – dreadlocked, matted hair, smeared from
head to toe in ash, wearing the fresh skin of an elephant, dripping with
blood. He came fully inebriated, completely blissed out. His entourage was all
demented and distorted beings, not of human form. They were making all
kinds of noises among themselves in a language that no one could
understand.

Parvati’s mother, Meena, looked at this groom and fainted! Parvati went and
begged Shiva, “I don’t mind the way you are. All I want is you, the way you
are. But for my mother’s sake just show a little more pleasant self.”

Shiva agreed and put on a very beautiful form, attired himself well, and then
came to the wedding again. When they saw Shiva transformed, they said he
was a Sundaramurti. That means he was the most beautiful human being
they had ever seen. He was nine feet tall. They say when Shiva stood, he was
level with a horse’s head. When he came down to southern India, they said
he was twice the height of an average woman there, who were generally
four-and-a-half to five feet tall. He was approximately nine feet tall, the most
beautiful man, and everyone was awestruck by his presence.

Shiva And Parvati: When An Ascetic Married A

Princess
Shiva sat down for the marriage. In India, especially with this kind of
wedding, the antecedents of the bride and the groom are announced with
great pride. They tell of their ancestry, where they come from, how pure their
blood is, and trace back the whole family tree.

For the bride, Parvati’s father Himavat was the King of the Himalayan
mountain region. Many glorious things were said about the bride’s lineage.
Now they asked, “What about the groom?”

Shiva simply sat quietly, remaining silent. He said nothing. None of his
accompanying entourage could speak any recognizable language. They were
making cacophonic noises. The bride’s father was disgraced by this: “A man
without antecedents. How will he marry my daughter? Nobody knows where
he comes from, who his parents are, what his lineage is. How can I give my
daughter to this man?” He rose up in anger.
Then sage Narada, who was also a wedding guest, stepped forward with his
single-stringed instrument called an ekatara. He plucked the single string,
“tangg, tangg, tangg.”

The king got even angrier. “What are you playing the ekatara for?”

Narada said, “This is his antecedence. He has no father, he has no mother.”

“Then what is his basis?”

“Tangg… His basis is sound, reverberation. He is born out of reverberation.

He has no parentage, no antecedents, no lineage. He is swayambhu – self-
created, a being without antecedents.”

The king was freaking out, but the wedding happened.

Shiva & Parvati’s Marriage: The Symbolism of the

Story
The story is a reminder that when we talk of Adiyogi, we are not talking of a
genteel, civilized man but of a primal figure, in a state of absolute oneness
with life. He is pure consciousness, completely without pretention, never
repetitive, always spontaneous, forever inventive, ceaselessly creative. He is
simply life itself

That is the fundamental requirement of the spiritual process. If you sit here
as a mere bundle of thoughts, beliefs and opinions – that is, with a memory
stick that you have picked up from outside – you are simply enslaved to the
psychological process. But if you sit here as a piece of life, you become one
with the existential process. If you are willing, you can access the whole
universe.

Life has left everything open for you. Existence has not blocked anything for
anyone. It has been said, “Knock, and it shall open.” You don’t even have to
knock because there is no real door. If you know how to keep aside a life of
memory and repetition, you can walk right through. The way to realization is
wide open.

When Shiva Opened His Third Eye

There is a story about how Shiva opened his third eye. In India, there is a god
of love and lust called Kamadeva. Kama means lust. Lust is something that
most people do not like to face head on. You want some aesthetics around it,
so you make it love! The story goes that Kama hid behind a tree and shot an
arrow at Shiva’s heart. Shiva got a little disturbed. So he opened his third eye,
which is a fiery eye, and burnt Kama to ashes. This is the story that is
generally told to everyone.

But please ask yourself, does your lust arise within you or behind a tree? It
arises within you, of course. Lust is not just about the opposite sex. Every
desire is lust, whether it is for sexuality, power or position. Lust essentially
means there is a sense of incompleteness within you, a longing for
something that makes you feel, “If I don’t have that, I am not complete.”

Shiva’s Third Eye: The Yogic Dimension

Based on this, the story of Shiva and Kama has a yogic dimension to it. Shiva
was working towards Yoga, which means he was not just working towards
being complete, but towards being limitless. Shiva opened his third eye and
saw Kama, his own lust, coming up and burnt it. Ash slowly oozed out of his
body, showing that everything within was laid to rest for good. By opening up
the third eye, he perceived a dimension within himself which is beyond the
physical, and all the compulsions of the physical dropped away.

What is Shiva’s Third Eye?

The third eye refers to an eye which can see that which is not physical. If you
look at your hand, you can see it because it stops and reflects light. You
cannot see the air because it does not stop light. But if there was a little
smoke in the air, you would be able to see it because you can see only that
which stops light. You cannot see anything that allows light to pass through.
This is the nature of the two sensory eyes.

The sensory eyes can grasp that which is physical. When you want to see
something that is not physical in nature, the only way to look is inward. When
we refer to the “third eye”, we are symbolically talking about seeing
something that the two sensory eyes cannot see.
The sensory eyes are outward-oriented. The third eye is to see your
interiority – the nature of yourself and your existence. It is not some extra
appendage or crack in your forehead. That dimension of perception through
which one can perceive that which is beyond the physical is referred to as the
third eye.

Looking At Life Through The Third Eye

Another aspect is that the sensory eyes are deeply contaminated by karma.
Karma means the residual memory of past actions. Everything that you see is
influenced by this karmic memory. You cannot help it. If you look at
someone, you will think, “He is nice, he is not nice, he is good, he is bad.” You
will not be able to see anything the way it is because the karmic memory
influences this vision and your ability to see. It will only show you everything
the way your karma is, the way your past memories are.

To be able to see everything just the way it is, an eye of deeper penetration –
which is unsullied by memory – has to be opened up. Traditionally in India,
knowing does not mean reading books, listening to someone’s talks or
gathering information. Knowing means to open up a new vision or insight
into life. No amount of thinking and philosophizing can bring clarity to your
mind. The logical clarity that you create can easily be distorted. Difficult
situations can throw it completely into turmoil.

Perfect clarity arises only when your inner vision opens up. No situation or
person in the world can distort this clarity within you. For true knowing to
arise, your third eye has to open up.

Editor’s Note: In this article, Sadhguru talks about two ways to open the third
eye.

Sadhguru says, “In the yogic tradition, Shiva is worshipped as a guru, not as a
god. That which we refer to as Shiva is multi-dimensional. All the qualities
that you can ever ascribe to anyone are ascribed to Shiva. When we say
Shiva, we are not saying he is this kind of a person or that kind of a person.
Generally, the moralistic traditions always understand Divinity as good. But if
you look at Shiva, you can neither fix him as good or bad. Everything that is in
the Existence is a part of him. That is how he is described in the tradition.”

The Origin of the 108 Names of Shiva

Sadhguru continues, “He has innumerable forms and manifestations but
fundamentally, we can categorize these into seven categories. There is the
distant godhead that we call as Ishwara; there is a benevolent personal god
that we call as Shambho; there is an uncomplicated hermit or Bho, or an
endearingly naïve Sambaleshwara or Bhola; there is a wise teacher of the
Vedas whom we call as Dakshinamurthy; the fountainhead of all art forms,
we call him Natesha; the fierce, the destroyer of the wicked, we call him
Kalabhairava or Mahakala; the dashing seducer of the romantic, we call him
Somasundara, which means more beautiful than the moon. These are the
seven basic forms out of which millions of manifestations can be derived.”

In the yogic tradition, there are 1008 names of Shiva that stem from these
seven broad categories. Out of these 1008 names, there are 108 names of
Shiva that are widely known:

Shiva’s 108 Names with Meanings

Aashutosh
One who instantly fulfills all wishes
Adiguru
The first Guru
Adinath
The first Lord
Adiyogi
The first Yogi
Aja
The Unborn
Akshayaguna
The one with limitless qualities
Anagha
The faultless one
Anantadrishti
Of infinite vision
Augadh
One who revels all the time
Avyayaprabhu
Imperishable
Bhairav
Destroyer of fear
Bhalanetra
One who has an eye in the forehead
Bholenath
The simple one
Bhooteshwara
One who has mastery over the elements
Bhudeva
Lord of the earth
Bhutapala
Protector of the disembodied beings
Chandrapal
Master of the moon
Chandraprakash
One who has moon as a crest
Dayalu
The compassionate one
Devadideva
The god of gods
Dhanadeepa
Lord of wealth
Dhyanadeep
The light of meditation
Dhyutidhara
Lord of brilliance
Digambara
The one who wears the sky as his raiment
Durjaneeya
Difficult to be known
Durjaya
The unvanquished
Gangadhara
Lord of river ganga
Girijapati
Consort of girija
Gunagrahin
Acceptor of gunas
Gurudeva
The great Guru
Hara
Remover of sins
Jagadisha
Master of the Universe
Jaradhishamana
Redeemer from afflictions
Jatin
The one with matted hair
Kailas
One who bestows peace
Kailashadhipati
Lord of Mount Kailash
Kailashnath
Master of Mount Kailash
Kamalakshana
Lotus-eyed lord
Kantha
Ever-radiant
Kapalin
One who wears a necklace of skulls
Kochadaiyaan
The lord with long dreadlocks
Kundalin
One who wears earrings
Lalataksha
One who has an eye in the forehead
Lingadhyaksha
Lord of the lingas
Lokankara
Creator of the three worlds
Lokapal
One who takes care of the world
Mahabuddhi
Extreme intelligence
Mahadeva
Greatest God
Mahakala
The lord of time
Mahamaya
Of great illusions
Mahamrityunjaya
Great victor of death
Mahanidhi
Great storehouse
Mahashaktimaya
One who has boundless energies
Mahayogi
Greatest yogi
Mahesha
Supreme lord
Maheshwara
Lord of Gods
Nagabhushana
One who has serpents as ornaments
Nataraja
King of the art of dancing
Nilakantha
The Blue-throated one
Nityasundara
Ever beautiful
Nrityapriya
Lover of Dance
Omkara
Creator of AUM
Palanhaar
One who protects all
Panchatsaran
Vigorous
Parameshwara
First among all gods
Paramjyoti
Greatest splendor
Pashupati
Lord of all living beings
Pinakin
One who has a bow in his hand
Pranava
Originator of the primal sound of AUM
Priyabhakta
Favorite of the devotees
Priyadarshana
Of loving vision
Pushkara
One who gives nourishment
Pushpalochana
One who has eyes like flowers
Ravilochana
Having Sun as the eye
Rudra
The Roarer
Sadashiva
The Transcended one
Sanatana
The Eternal God
Sarvacharya
The Supreme Teacher
Sarvashiva
The Eternal Lord
Sarvatapana
Preceptor of All
Sarvayoni
Always Pure
Sarveshwara
Lord of All
Shambho
The auspicious one
Shankara
Lord of All Gods
Shantah
Peaceful Lord
Shoolin
One who has a trident
Shreshhtha
Always pure
Shrikantha
One who has a pure body
Shrutiprakasha
Illuminator of the Vedas
Skandaguru
Perceptor of Skanda
Someshwara
Lord of the Moon
Sukhada
The giver of joy
Swayambhu
Self-created
Tejaswani
One who spreads illumination
Trilochana
Three-eyed Lord
Trilokpati
Master of all the three worlds
Tripurari
Destroyer of the “Tripur” (the 3 planets created by Asuras)
Trishoolin
One who has a trident in his hands
Umapati
Consort of Uma
Vachaspati
Lord of Speech
Vajrahasta
One who has a thunderbolt in his hands
Varada
Granter of Boons
Vedakarta
Originator of the Vedas
Veerabhadra
Supreme Lord of the Nether World
Vishalaksha
Wide-eyed Lord
Vishveshwara
Lord of the Universe
Vishwanath
Master of the Universe
Vrishavahana
One who has bull as his vehicle
1. The First and Final Form

Sadhguru:

The word linga means “the form.” We are calling it “the form” because when
the un-manifest began to manifest itself, or in other words when creation
began to happen, the first form that it took was that of an ellipsoid. A perfect
ellipsoid is what we call as a linga. Creation always started as an ellipsoid or a
linga, and then became many things. And we know from our experience that
if you go into deep states of meditativeness, before a point of absolute
dissolution comes, once again the energy takes the form of an ellipsoid or a
linga. So, the first form is linga and the final form is linga.

Linga

You are the firstborn

The first expression of the cosmic emptiness

The wise ones spied you

To be the source of all this lively mischief

You are the source of all pain and pleasure

You are the lowest and the highest

Ah, the games that you play

The multitude of forms for which you are the source
Are neither this nor that

I wormed through creation

To discover you and me

O’ Ishana the most glorious form

Blessed is Isha to be your abode

– Sadhguru

2. Consecrating a Linga
“With the necessary technology, simple space, even a piece of stone can be
made into divine exuberance. This is the phenomenon of consecration.” –
Sadhguru

Sadhguru:

If you give me any object, a piece of paper for example, I can make it highly
energetic and give it to you. If you hold it before and after I touch it, you will
feel the difference, but the paper will not be able to sustain this energy. But,
if you create a perfect linga form, it becomes a perennial storehouse of
energy. Once you charge it, it will always stay that way.

Prana Pratishtha

Pratishtha means consecration. The most common form of consecration is

by using mantras, rituals and other kinds of processes. If you consecrate a
form through mantras, it needs constant maintenance and rituals to keep
the deity alive.
Prana Pratishtha is not like that. Once a form is consecrated through life
energies, not with mantras or rituals, it is forever and needs no maintenance.
That is the reason why there are no poojas in Dhyanalinga ; it does not need
that maintenance. It is consecrated through prana pratishtha. It will always
be like that. Even if you take away the stone part of the linga, it will still be
like that. If the whole world comes to an end, that form will still remain.

3. Linga-Making – A Subjective Science

Sadhguru:

The science of linga-making is a huge experiential possibility, and has been

there for thousands of years. But in the last eight or nine hundred years,
especially when the bhakti movement swept the country, the science of
building a temple got washed away. For a devotee, nothing is important
except his emotion. His path is emotion. It is only from the strength of his
emotion that he does everything. So they just kept the science aside and
started building temples whichever way they liked. It is a love affair, you
know? A bhakta can do whatever he wants. Anything is fair with him because
the only thing he has is the strength of his emotion. Because of this, the
science of making lingas receded. Otherwise, it was a very deep science. This
is a very subjective science, and it was never written down because if you
write it down, it will be completely misunderstood. Many lingas have been
created like this, without any knowledge of the science.

4. Lingas of the Pancha Bhutas Sthalas

Sadhguru:

The most fundamental sadhana in yoga is bhuta shuddhi. The pancha bhutas
are the five elements in nature. If you look at yourself, your physical body is
made up of five elements. These are earth, fire, wind, water, and space. They
come together in a certain way to become the body. The spiritual process is
about going beyond the physical and five elements. These elements have a
huge grip on everything that you experience. To transcend them, the
fundamental practice of yoga involves what is called bhuta shuddhi. For
every element that is involved, there is a certain practice you can do to
become free from it.

In South India, five magnificent temples were built, each with a linga
representing one of the pancha bhutas. If you want to do sadhana for the
element of water, you go to Thiruvanaikaval. For space, you go to
Chidambaram; Air, Kalahashasti; Earth, Kanchipuram and Fire,
Thiruvannamalai.

These temples were created as places for sadhana, not for worship.

5. Jyotirlingas
Sadhguru:

Indian culture has been among the few cultures on this planet where for
thousands of years, the whole population was focused only on the ultimate
wellbeing of the human being. The moment you were born in India, your life
was not about your business, your wife, your husband or your family; your
life was only about mukti. The whole society was structured like this.
In this context, many kinds of powerful devices were created in this culture.
Jyotirlingas were created as very powerful tools in this direction. It is a
powerful experience to be in the presence of such forms.

Jyotirlingas have tremendous power because they were consecrated and

created in a certain way, not just using human capabilities, but the forces of
nature. There are only twelve Jyotirlingas. They are located at certain
geographically and astronomically significant points. These points are subject
to certain forces in the existence. A long time ago, people with a certain level
of perception very carefully calibrated these spaces and fixed those points
according to the celestial movement.

Some of the Jyotirlingas are no longer “alive”, but many of them are still very
powerful tools.

6. Mahakala – The Ultimate Time Machine

Sadhguru:

Shi-va literally means “that which is not” or no-thing. The hyphen is

important. It is in the lap of vast no-thingness that creation happened. Over
99% of the atom and the cosmos is, in fact, emptiness – simply no-thing. The
one word, Kala, is used for time and space and one of the personifications of
Shiva is Kala Bhairava. Kala Bhairava is a vibrant state of darkness, but when
he becomes absolutely still, he turns into Mahakala, the ultimate time
machine.

The Mahakala temple in Ujjain is an incredibly consecrated space, this

powerful manifestation is definitely not for the faint-hearted. Raw and
forceful, it is available for all those seeking ultimate dissolution – the
annihilation of time as we know it.

The spiritual process anywhere in the world is always about transcending the
physical, because form is subject to cycles. Kala Bhairava is seen, therefore,
as the Destroyer of Ignorance: he who shatters the compulsive cycles of birth
and death, being and non-being.

7. Lingas Worldwide
Sadhguru:

There was no enlightened being who did not talk about Shiva, in the sense of
a boundless dimension, or something beyond physical nature. The only
difference is they may have expressed it in the language and symbolism of
their region.

However, because of very aggressive ways of spreading religion around the

world in the last 1500 years, most of the great cultures of the past, like the
ancient Mesopotamian civilization, the Central Asian civilizations, and the
North African civilizations, have disappeared. So it is not very visible
anymore, but if you look deeper into history, it was everywhere. So, in some
way, mystical sciences used to be present in every culture. But in the last
1500 years, they were largely lost in other parts of the world.

8. Lingas Are Made of Different Materials

Lingas that have formed naturally are called the self-created or svayambhu-
lingas. There is a cave in Amarnath, in the northern state of Jammu. Inside
the cave, a Shiva linga of ice is formed every year. The linga is formed
naturally by the stalagmite that drips from the roof of the cave. It is almost
magical to see water droplets trickling slowly from the top of the cave and
freezing into ice when they fall.

Some lingas are carved out of rock, wood, or gems; others are molded out of
clay, sand or metal. These are pratishtith-lingas. Many lingas are covered by a
metal sheath and given a face so that the devotee can relate better. These
are mukhalingas. Some even have the entire image of Shiva carved on the
surface.

Lingas represent the union of the masculine and the feminine. The feminine
base is referred to as Gowripeetam or Avudaiyar. The linga and the base
together signify the union of Shiva and Shakti, the masculine and feminine
energies.

9. The Linga – A Guru

As the energy states addressed by yoga are not within the purview of the five
senses, the guidance of a Guru is usually needed to experience these inner
states. Many relationships rely on mental, emotional and physical bonding,
but the master-disciple relationship is unique in that it is energy based.

Modern science, due to its total dependence on the five senses, has
privileged an empirical or rational approach to the process of research or
seeking, limiting itself to the more pedestrian powers of the human mind.
Modern education has echoed this approach, ignoring and neglecting the
receptive potential of the individual. In this climate, there is great skepticism
about the ability of a Guru to possess insight that goes beyond rationality.
Yet, throughout history, the seeker has time and again been intuitively drawn
to a Guru. To fulfill this urge for spiritual guidance, some visionary Gurus
have created energy centers that replicate the Guru’s presence and energy.
The Dhyanalinga is the prime manifestation of the Guru. It is the instilled
essence of the yogic sciences, a manifestation of inner energies at their peak.

10. Shiva Linga as the Cosmic Pillar

The story goes, Brahma and Vishnu once came across a great pillar of fire.
From this unending column of effulgence emanated the sound, Aum. Awed,
they decided to investigate. Taking the form of a swan, Brahma rose high into
the blue skies in pursuit of its summit. Taking the form of a boar, Vishnu
bored his way deep into the universe in pursuit of its base.

Both failed. For this cosmic pillar was none other than Shiva himself. How
can one measure the immeasurable? When Vishnu returned, he conceded
defeat. However, not wanting to admit failure, Brahma boasted that he had
scaled the summit. As proof, he presented a white ketaki flower that he
claimed to find on top.

No sooner was the lie uttered, Shiva appeared as Adiyogi (the first yogi). The
two gods fell at his feet. For this lie, Shiva declared, Brahma would
henceforth be deprived of the privilege of worship. The flower, by becoming
accomplice to this subterfuge, fell from grace. Adiyogi refused henceforth to
accept it as an offering. However, an exception was made for the holy night
of Mahashivratri. To this day, the white ketaki flower is offered for worship
only on this darkest night in the year, considered to be the night of
profoundest spiritual possibility.
11. The Dhyanalinga
“Just sitting silently for a few minutes within the sphere of Dhyanalinga is
enough to make even those unaware of meditation experience a state of
deep meditativeness.”
– Sadhguru

“Dhyana” in Sanskrit means “meditation” and “linga” means “form.” Sadhguru

used his own life energies through a mystical process called prana-pratishtha
to consecrate the linga to its highest peak. In this process, all seven chakras
(main energy centers in the body) have been energized to the very peak and
locked, making it like the energy body of the highest or most evolved being.

Demanding no worship or prayer, this meditation shrine recognizes all

religions as expressions of one common source.

Dhyanalinga

You are my Guru’s will

My only obsession
In my dreams and my wakefulness
My only longing was to fulfill you

Willing to do anything
That men should and should not
Willing to offer myself and
Another hundred lives if need be

Here now that you have happened

O’ Glorious one
May your Glory and Grace
Stir the sleeping hordes
Into wakefulness and light

Now that you have happened

And the gift of life still with me
What shall I do with myself
Have lived the peaks for too long
Time to graze the valleys of life.

– Sadhguru

12. Lingas Represent Chakras

Sadhguru: Chakras are a meeting point for the energy system, where the
pranic nadis meet to create an energy vortex. There are one hundred and
fourteen chakras, but generally, when we say “chakras” we are referring to
the seven important chakras, which represent seven dimensions of life. They
are like seven major traffic junctions.

Right now, most of the Lingas in India represent one or two chakras at the
most. The uniqueness of the Dhyanalinga at the Isha Yoga Center is that all
the seven chakras are energized and established at their peak. It is the
highest possible manifestation, in the sense that if you take energy and push
it up to very high levels of intensity, it can hold form only to a certain point.
Beyond that, it becomes formless. If it becomes formless, people are
incapable of experiencing it. Pushing the energy to the highest point beyond
which there will be no form, and crystallizing it at that point – this is how
Dhyanalinga has been consecrated.

Question: Sadhguru, I have seen quite a few images of Kali standing on the

chest of Shiva’s corpse. What is the significance of this scene?

How Kali Killed Shiva

Sadhguru: This is a certain story trying to depict how the feminine
dimension of energy functions. Once, it so happened that various demons
started dominating the world. Many evil forces started taking over the world.
So Kali went into a fury. When she went wild, there was no stopping her. She
just went and slaughtered everything.

Her fury would not stop. It was going on, beyond reason, beyond the
necessary action needed for that situation, beyond everything. Because her
fury had picked up such momentum and it would not subside, and because
she was continuing the slaughter, no one dared to go and stop her. They
approached Shiva and said, “She is going on like this. She is your woman.
Please do something to rein her in.”

Shiva approached Kali as he knew her. He went towards her without

aggression, not in a battle mode. He simply went. But Kali’s energy went to
such a scale that it knocked Shiva himself down. Only when she stood over
him did she realize what she had done. Then she slowed down and once
again breathed life into him.

Devi Takes Off Her Own Head

There are various tantric processes which are based on this particular event.
You might have seen images and paintings of tantrics who have taken off
their own head and are walking, holding the head in their hand. Or you may
have seen Devi herself, depicted as taking off her head and holding it in her
hand and walking. There are various tantric processes involved where people
actually decapitate themselves and once again fix the head back. There are
certain rituals through which this is done.

Tantra: Unmaking and Making Life

I know that today, most people think tantra means unbridled promiscuity.
This is because most of the tantric books today are written by Americans,
and people read about tantra from magazines and books. Tantra does not
mean promiscuity. Tantra means extreme discipline. Tantra means a
technology, a method, a capability to unmake life and make life again. Tantra
is to have such mastery over the system that you can dismantle life
completely and put it back again.

The Symbolism of Kali Killing Shiva

You can have such mastery over life that life and death are both so
completely in your hands, that you can dismantle life and put it back again.
You can even kill the Divine and bring him back. This is not a feat that you are
trying to show off to somebody. It is because you want to have such mastery
over life.
Unless you have some mastery over life, you cannot do anything. Everyone
has some mastery over life. Otherwise, what could you do? The level of
mastery that you have determines how much you can do.

The image of Kali standing on Shiva essentially symbolizes having total

mastery over the process of life. It means that you can kill God himself and
then give life back to him. That is audacious, isn’t it? That is how the
technology of tantra is.

That is as far as legend goes. But as life, why is the vilva held so sacred? Sadhguru
answers.

Sadhguru: Why is one leaf more sacred than another? Is it some kind of a prejudice?
After all, everything comes from the soil. Both the neem fruit and the mango fruit come
from the same soil but they taste very different, isn’t it? How one particular life processes
the same soil and how another life processes the same soil is different. What is the
difference between a worm and an insect, and yourself and another human being? It is all
the same stuff but still what we make out of it is different.

When people are on the spiritual path they are constantly looking for support in every
possible way because it is unknown terrain. In Indian culture, every little thing that could
support you was identified through observation and meditativeness. They did not leave
out even flowers, fruits and leaves. Why is the vilva in particular considered sacred? It
has always been said that the vilva is dear to Shiva. What does he care? It’s not that it is
dear to Shiva. When we say it is dear to Shiva, we mean that in some way its
reverberance is closest to what we refer to as Shiva.

We identified many things like this and only those things are offered because they
become your means to get in touch. When you offer the vilva to Shiva, you are not going
to leave the leaf with him. You are supposed to take it with you after it is offered because
this particular leaf has the highest capability to absorb that reverberance. If you place it
on the linga and take it, it has the ability to retain the reverberation for a long period of
time. It stays with you. You can try this: offer the vilva leaf, put it in your chest pocket
and walk around, it will make a difference for you in terms of your health, wellbeing,
mental state – everything.
There are many materials like this which are recognized sacred tools that people use. This
is not about gods, this is about you and your ability to access something.

The Shiva Purana – Science Through

Stories
Sadhguru explains how the Shiva Purana includes many aspects of fundamental science
in its text, as well as a powerful tool to transcend limitations.
Question: Sadhguru, you place great importance on Shiva. Why do you not talk so much
about other Masters, like Masters of Zen for example?
Sadhguru: This vast emptiness that we refer to as Shiva is a boundless non-entity –
eternal and always. But since human perception is limited to form, we created many
wonderful forms for Shiva in the tradition and culture. The enigmatic, non-perceivable
Ishwara; the auspicious Shambho; disarmingly naïve Bhola; Dakshinamurthy, the great
master and teacher of the Vedas, Shastras and Tantras; the easily forgiving Ashuthosh;
Bhairava, the one tainted with the very blood of the creator; Achaleshwara, the absolute
stillness; the most dynamic of dancers, Nataraja – as many aspects as there are to life, that
many aspects have been offered to him.

Generally, in most parts of the world, anything that people refer to as divine is always
referred to as good. But if you read through the Shiva Purana, you cannot identify Shiva
as a good person or a bad person. He is everything – he is the ugliest, he is the most
beautiful; he is the best and he is the worst; he is the most disciplined, he is a drunkard.
Gods, demons, and all kind of creatures in the world worship him. The so-called
civilization has conveniently eliminated all those un-digestible stories about Shiva, but
that is where the essence of Shiva is. Completely contradictory aspects of life have been
built into the personality of Shiva. Such a complex amalgamation of all the qualities of
existence have been put into one person because if you can accept this one being, you
have crossed life itself. The whole struggle with one’s life is we are always trying to pick
out what is beautiful and what is not, what is good and what is bad. You will not have a
problem with anyone if only you can accept this man who is a complex amalgamation of
everything that life can be.
If you look carefully at the stories in the Shiva Purana, you will see the Theory of
Relativity, Quantum Mechanics – the whole of modern physics – has been very
beautifully expressed through stories. This is a dialectical culture; science was expressed
through stories. Everything has been personified. But somewhere along the way people
dropped the science and just carried the stories, and the stories were exaggerated from
generation to generation to a point of being absolutely ridiculous. If you put the science
back into the stories, it is a beautiful way to express science.
The Shiva Purana is the highest science of elevating human nature to the very peak of
consciousness, expressed in the form of very beautiful stories. Yoga has been expressed
in the form of a science without stories attached to it, but if you look at it in a deeper
sense, yoga and the Shiva Purana cannot be separated. One is for those who like stories,
another is for those who are willing to look at everything scientifically, but the
fundamentals of both are the same.
Today, scientists are conducting a lot of research on the nature of modern education. One
of the things that they are saying is if a child goes through 20 years of formal education
and comes out, a large percentage of his intelligence is irrevocably destroyed. That means
he is coming out as a very knowledgeable idiot. They are suggesting that one of the best
ways to impart education is to impart it in the form of stories or in the form of play. A
little effort has been made in that direction, but most of the education in the world has
remained hugely suppressive. The huge volume of information suppresses your
intelligence unless it is given to you in a certain form, and the story form of teaching
would be the best way. This is what was done in this culture. The highest dimensions of
science were transmitted in wonderful story forms.

5 Facts about Mahashivratri

The exuberant nightlong festival of Mahashivratri will be celebrated this year on
March 04th at the Isha Yoga Center. In preparation for the event, we’ve put
together a list of five facts to know about this night of tremendous spiritual
possibilities.

#1 There is a natural upsurge of energy in the

human system
Sadhguru: The fourteenth day of every lunar month, a day before the new
moon day, is referred to as Shivratri. On this day, there is a natural upsurge
in the human energy system. The Shivratri which falls in the month of Magha
in the Indian calendar (February/March) is referred to as Mahashivratri
because particularly on this day, there is an assistance from nature to raise
energies within the system. The whole system of yoga and spiritual process
as such is about enhancing a human being from his limitations to his
limitlessness. For this enhancement to happen the most fundamental
process is that there is an activation, an upward movement of energy. So for
all those who are aspiring to be a little more than who they are right now,
Shivratri is of significance, Mahashivratri is of particular significance.

#2 Signifies different things to different people

Sadhguru: Mahashivratri is significant in many ways. For people who live in
family situations, Mahashivratri is worshiped as Shiva’s wedding anniversary.
For the ascetics, it is the day he became one with Kailash, that is he became
Achaleshwara and merged with the mountain. After millennia of meditation,
he became as still as a mountain and became a part of it, merging and
preserving all his knowing in Kailash. So ascetics see Mahashivratri as a day
of stillness. The ambitious in the world see it as the day Shiva conquered all
his enemies.

#3 Keeping the spine erect throughout the night

opens many possibilities

Sadhguru: Whatever the legends, the significance of the day is that there is
an upward movement of energy in the human body. So this night, we want to
spend awake, aware, with our spines erect so that whatever sadhana we are
doing, there is a great assistance from nature. All evolution in a human being
is fundamentally an upward movement of energy. Every practice, every
sadhana that a spiritual sadhaka does is only to move his energies upward.

#4 Celebrated as a night-long festival of music and

dance
The exuberant nightlong festival at the Isha Yoga Center sets the ideal
ambience to experience Mahashivratri, with explosive meditations and
spectacular musical performances by renowned artists, drawing over a
million people. In the presence of Sadhguru, this unrivaled celestial
extravaganza opens up the tremendous spiritual possibilities of the night.
Live performances by musical artists of international repute, interspersed
with colourful cultural presentations and Isha’s own home-grown
band, Sounds of Isha, mark the night long celebration.

#5 Pancha Bhuta Aradhana is performed in the

presence of Sadhguru

The basis of all creation, including the physical body, are the five elements or
the pancha bhuta. The wellbeing of the body and the mind can be
established by purifying the five elements within the human system. This
process also shapes the body to become a stepping stone towards one’s
ultimate wellbeing rather than being a hurdle. There is a whole system of
yoga called bhuta shuddhi, meaning purification of the elements. With
the Pancha Bhuta Aradhana, Sadhguru opens up a unique opportunity for
devotees to benefit from this deep yogic science which would otherwise
require intense sadhana.

What Makes Nandi A Meditative Bull?

Sadhguru and Shekhar Kapur discuss the significance and symbolism of Nandi, Shiva’s
vehicle.
Shekhar Kapur: I understand Nandi is Shiva’s vehicle. Is he waiting for Shiva to come
out and say… what? Tell me more about the Nandi.
Sadhguru: He is not waiting for him to come out and say something. He is in waiting.
Nandi is a symbolism of eternal waiting, because waiting is considered the greatest virtue
in Indian culture. One who knows how to simply sit and wait is naturally meditative. He
is not expecting Shiva to come out tomorrow. He will wait forever. That quality is the
essence of receptivity.

Nandi is Shiva’s closest accomplice because he is the essence of receptivity. Before you
go into a temple, you must have the quality of Nandi – to simply sit. You are not trying to
go to heaven, you are not trying to get this or that – you go inside and simply sit. So, just
by sitting here, he is telling you, “When you go in, don’t do your fanciful things. Don’t
ask for this or that. Just go and sit like me.”
Shekhar Kapur: And waiting and anticipation are two different things, I assume, right?
Sadhguru: He is not waiting in anticipation or expectation. He is just waiting. That’s
meditation – just sitting. That’s his message for you. Simply go inside and sit. Alert, not
sleepy.
Shekhar Kapur: So, the bull is sitting in what we would call meditation?
Sadhguru: People have always misunderstood meditation as some kind of activity. No, it
is a quality. That is a fundamental difference. Prayer means you are trying to talk to God.
You are trying to tell him your vows, your expectations, or whatever else. Meditation
means you are willing to just listen to existence, to the ultimate nature of creation. You
have nothing to say, you simply listen. That is the quality of Nandi – he just sits, alert.
This is very important: he is alert. He is not sleepy or sitting in a passive way. He is
sitting very active, full of alertness and life, but no expectation or anticipation. That is
meditation. Just waiting, not for anything in particular.

Sadhguru: In the yogic culture, Shiva is not seen as a God. He was a being who walked
this land and is the very source of the yogic traditions. He is the Adiyogi or the first yogi,
and also the Adi Guru, the first Guru. This first transmission of yogic sciences happened
on the banks of Kanti Sarovar, a glacial lake a few miles beyond Kedarnath in the
Himalayas, where Adiyogi began a systematic exposition of this inner technology to his
first seven disciples, celebrated today as the Sapta Rishis.

Kantisarovar – Lake of Grace

The legend goes that Shiva and Parvati lived on the banks of Kantisarovar, and in Kedar,
there lived many yogis whom Shiva and Parvati would visit. Many years ago, I used to
travel alone for a month or two every year in the Himalayas. The first time I went to
Kantisarovar was in 1994. Kantisarovar is the lake that burst out and came to Kedar
during the 2013 floods. Today, it is being called Gandhi Sarovar. It is actually
Kantisarovar. Kanti means grace, sarovar means a lake. It is a lake of grace.

When I got to Kedar after a long trek, I heard about Kantisarovar, so one afternoon, I set
forth around 2 or 2:30pm and got there in a little more than an hour’s time. There was the
lake and snow-capped mountains around it. In terms of nature, it is fantastic – this huge
lake of absolutely still water, no vegetation and all the snow-covered peaks reflecting in
the totally still water. It was an incredible place.

Sadhguru at Kantisarovar
I just sat there, and the serenity, silence and purity penetrated my consciousness. The
climb, the altitude and the desolate beauty of that place left me breathless. I sat in that
stillness on a small rock with my eyes open, imbibing every form around me. The
surroundings gradually lost their form and only nada – sound – existed. The mountain,
the lake and the whole surroundings, including my body, did not exist in their usual form.
Everything was just sound. Within me a song arose: “Nada brahma vishwa swaroopa.”

Nada Brahma
Nada Brahma Vishwaswaroopa
Nada Hi Sakala Jeevaroopa
Nada Hi Karma Nada Hi Dharma
Nada Hi Bandhana Nada Hi Mukti
Nada Hi Shankara Nada Hi Shakti
Nadam Nadam Sarvam Nadam
Nadam Nadam Nadam Nadam

I am somebody who always avoided learning the Sanskrit language. Though I like the
language very much and I know the depth of the language, I avoided learning it because
the moment you learn Sanskrit, you will invariably end up reading the scriptures. My
own vision has never failed me in anything even for one moment, so I did not want to
clutter myself with scriptures and all these traditions. So I avoided the Sanskrit language.

While I was sitting there, my mouth was definitely closed and my eyes open, and I heard
this song in a big way, in my voice. It was my voice singing, and it was a Sanskrit song. I
heard it clearly, loudly. So loud, it was like the whole mountain was singing. In my
experience, everything had turned into sound. That is when I perceived this song. I didn’t
make it up, I didn’t write it – it just descended upon me. The whole song flowed out in
Sanskrit. The experience was overpowering.

Slowly, after some time, everything fell back into its earlier form. The fall of my
consciousness – the fall from nada to rupa – filled my eyes with tears.

If you just give yourself to that song, there is a kind of power to it. It has a power to
dissolve a person, if you really throw yourself into it.

Kailash – Mystic Mountain

In the Hindu way of life, it is said that Kailash is the Abode of Shiva. It does not mean he
is sitting up there dancing or hiding in the snow. It means he deposited his knowing there.
When Adiyogi found that each one of the Sapta Rishis had grasped one aspect of the
knowing, and he could not find another human being who could grasp all seven
dimensions of yoga, that is when he decided to deposit all of it into Mount Kailash so that
all seven dimensions of knowing the mechanics of life are preserved in one place and one
source. Kailash became the greatest mystical library on the planet – a live library, not just
with information, but alive!

South face of Kailash

When a person realizes himself and his perception goes far beyond what is considered
normal perception, what he has perceived cannot always be transmitted to people around
him. Only a small part of it may be transmitted. It is very rare for any master to find
people to whom he can transmit all of himself.
So where do you leave all this? You don’t want this to become lost. So, for thousands of
years, realized beings always traveled to Kailash and deposited their knowledge in a
certain energy form, using the mountain as a basis. It is because of this that South Indian
mysticism always says that Agastya, who is the basis of this form of mysticism, lives in
the Southern face of Kailash. The Buddhists say three of their main Buddhas live in the
mountain. The Jains say Rishabh, the first of the Teerthankaras, lives in Kailash.

For a spiritual seeker, Kailash is like touching the ultimate source on this planet. For one
who is in pursuit of mysticism, this is the place. There is no other place like this.

Shiva & Shakti shrines from 8-12 century AD

In this country, in ancient times, temples were built mostly for Shiva, no one else. It was
only in the last 1000 or so years that other temples came up. The word “Shiva” literally
means “that which is not.” So the temple was built for “that which is not.” “That which
is” is physical manifestation; “that which is not” is that which is beyond the physical. A
temple is a hole through which you enter into a space which is not. There are thousands
of Shiva temples in the country, and most of them don’t have any form as such. They just
have a representative form and generally it is a linga.

A downloadable version of the below map is available here.

Velliangiri – Kailash of the South
Very close to where we are in South India, we have another repository of mysticism –
the Velliangiri Mountain. This is referred to as the Kailash of the South. It is a
phenomenal space. The biggest heap of knowing is Kailash. But various mystics and
yogis in the South used Velliangiri when they wanted to store knowing. Nothing is
comparable to Kailash as a library in terms of volume, but in terms of quality, Velliangiri
is just as good.

The mountain is known as the Seven Hills because if you climb, there are seven
undulations that make you feel like you are going up seven hills. The last peak is totally
wind-blown – nothing grows there except grass. There are just three very huge boulders
that have formed a shelter between themselves that is like a little temple with a
small linga. It is an incredibly powerful place.

The yogis and siddhas who came down this mountain were completely of a different kind
– extremely fierce and intense people. So many beings – the kind of men that gods would
be envious of because they lived with such grace and dignity – have walked this
mountain. These great beings let the whole mountain imbibe what they knew, and it can
never be lost. This is also a mountain where my Guru walked and the place he chose to
shed his body. So this is not just a mountain, this is a temple for us.

Kashi – The Eternal City

People have been traveling to Kashi from across the world for thousands of
years. Gautama came here to give his first teaching. The Chinese travelled here after
Gautama’s arrival. Nalanda University – which is recognized as the greatest place of
learning – is just a small drop of knowledge that fell out of Kashi. All the people that you
hear of, like Aryabhata and so many others, came from this region, all generated by the
culture that was alive in Kashi.
When the yogis saw the nature of the cosmos – as to how it is evolving from within itself,
and how its ability to evolve is quite limitless – they were tempted to make their own. In
Kashi, they built a kind of instrument in the form of a city that brings a union between the
micro and the macro. This little human being can have a phenomenal possibility of
uniting with the cosmic reality, and knowing the pleasure, ecstasy and beauty of
becoming one with the cosmic nature. Geometrically, Kashi is a perfect manifestation of
how the cosmos, or the macrocosm and the microcosm, can meet. There have been many
instruments like this in the country, but to create a city like Kashi is a mad ambition. And
they did it thousands of years ago. There were 72,000 shrines – the number of nadis in
the human body. The whole process is like a manifestation of a mega human body to
make contact with a larger cosmic body. It is because of this that the whole tradition came
up: “If you go to Kashi, that is it.” You don’t want to leave the place because when you
get connected to the cosmic nature, why would you want to go anywhere else?

The legend of Kashi goes one hundred percent by the fundamental that Shiva himself
lived here. This was his winter place. There are stories about how he sent people to
Kashi, one after another, and they never came back because it was so fantastic. But
maybe the story is saying that he sent people to build it, and they took a long time. After
it was built, he came and he liked it, and decided to stay.

In the last few centuries, Kashi was razed to the ground thrice. How much of it is alive
today is a question mark, but definitely something is still on – it is not all gone. It is a
misfortune that we were not alive when it was in full glory. It must have been the most
phenomenal place to have drawn people from across the world.

We have survived the past, but the question is, will we survive the future? When I say
“we,” I am not talking about a particular religion. I am talking about those populations on
the planet who are willing to look at life the way it is, not trying to impose their opinion
on someone else. The world does not need dogma, philosophies or belief systems. What it
needs is for human ability to be able to perceive something that is right now considered
“beyond.” This is the only way a human being will know. This is the only way human
consciousness will expand. This is the only way a human being will evolve beyond the
narrow divisions that have happened in human societies.

If you just wait without doing your own thing, the existence will do its thing. Meditation
essentially means the individual person is not doing his own thing. He is just there. Once
you are simply there, you become aware of the larger dimension of the existence, which
is always in action. You become aware that you are a part of it. Even now, you are a part
of it. But becoming aware that “I am a part of it” is meditativeness. Nandi is the
symbolism of that. He reminds everyone, “You must sit like me.”
Shekhar Kapur: What is the Nandi at Dhyanalinga made of? I can see this is metal, is it
steel?
Sadhguru: He is probably the only Nandi made in this very unique way. Small pieces of
metal, each one not more than six to nine inches in size, were put together to form the
surface. Inside, it is filled with sesame seeds, turmeric, vibhuti the sacred ash, certain
types of oils, some sand, and certain other types of soil. It took some 20 tons of material
to fill it. Then it was sealed. The whole concoction has been prepared in a certain way.
This makes the bull radiate a certain field of energy.