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Note: my apologies for any typos or misrepresentations of the text - please consider purchasing the book. Wolf-Dieter Storl: "Shiva! For his devotees, he is the entire universe and the core of all beings. Who but a fool, be he ever so wise, would dare take on the task of writing about him? Has the writer not heard the old Indian tale of the goddess of learning who, despite having mountains of ink powder, the sea as an inkwell, the World Tree as her writing pen, and surface of the earth as her paper, failed to describe the splendor of Mahadev, the Great God? Still, neither the writer nor the reader need despair, for Shiva is the devotee of his devotees, the lover of his lovers, and though he is all-encompassing and all-transcendent, he reveals himself to his worshippers - for he is the very Self of each and every one. In south India, when worshipping Shiva, one must first of all purify the body with water as one enteres the temple, or holy site, where he customarily reveals his numinous presence. One brings him flowers, sweet smelling incense, and other beautiful things representing one's heart and soul, and dedicates them to Mahadev. One also offers a ripe coconut, which the attendent priest dashes against a hard stone surface, spilling the milk in front of the idol, or the lingam, which is Shiva's sign. The hard-shelled nut represents none other than our skull, this citadel of our hardened out little ego. Willingly one sacrifices this accursed limited ego-nature to the all-encompassing greater Self. The ego dwarf, reducing the universe to his own diminished dimensions by means of his clever, cutting intellect, is never capable of grasping the wider mystery. Shiva, therefore, in an act of mercy, seizes it, smashes it to bits, drinks out its life fluid, and let us find at-one-ment with him, our true Self. It is no wonder that the ego-centered individual has always shunned and feared this seeming destroyer. And no wonder, then, that Shiva is often seen as the diabolos, or devil..." [1-2] Shiva: The Wild God of Power and Ecstasy "Almost imperceptibly, yet steadily, the stars shift their relative position. In a little over two thousand years, the sun's spring position, the vernal equinox, will have moved into another sign of the zodiac, giving its radiations a qualitively new impact. The changes one observes in nature are connected with the beat of these cosmic rhythms, as are the major transformations of human culture... A growing population organized itself into castes and classes, and built cities and temples, while philosophers contemplated the succession of ages: the Golden Age became the Silver Age, the Silver Age turned into the Bronze Age, and now we find ourselves in the grip of an Iron Age. Just like the external world, the inner world of the soul also changed. The immediate vision availible to all, the seeing God eye to eye, gave way ever more to priestly authority and ritual, which in turn was replaced by ever more rational, ego-oriented thinking. The dancing, drumming, immanent, androgynous, shamanistic trickster-god was replaced by regal, celestial deities who control the seasons and the waxing and waning of vegetation and by a life-giving, yet bloodthirsty, Earth and Mother Goddess. The animal god of the hunters faded or metamorphosed into a number of persons, such as the phallic lover of the goddess, the fire god, the god of the herds, or the devil. But in recent times, even these images faded, being replaced more and more by a transcendent, virgin-born Logos, whose brilliant light ever more vaporizes into thin air, leaving in its void an apparently absurd universe of matter/energy.... step-by-step, Shiva reveals himself as Mahadev, the God of Gods. On the dizzy heights of Shaivite metaphysics, he becomes absolute Being/Consciousness/Bliss (Satchidananda), which is the sum total of all and everything. All oppositions of day/night, good/evil, I/Thou, being/non-being, male/female, and life/death are but the ethereal, spontaneous game (Sanskrit lila = play of the gods) of his Shakti, his feminine power, his dancing mistress, whose gestures bring forth universes and absorb them again. Since Mahadev is all, he is not jealous of a God - like Jehova or Alla - who tolerates no other gods. Shiva is pleased by all cults and all religious devotion. The multitude of religions, churches, and sects reflect only the various stages toward realization of his being. Souls enmeshed in the pangs of illusion need loud, colorful, bloody rituals and gaudy idols. Others need sackcloth and ashes, sermons and soda water, while still others need anemich philosophical speculation. Shive is gracious to all, no matter under what name or in what tongue they call upon him. They are all right, for they are all Shiva. They are but Shiva himself praying to Shiva. With this kind of thinking, it is no wonder that in Hinduism every religious expression is tolerated, from the primitive cults of local dieties to the archaic Vedic rites at meal preperation, weddings, and funerals. There is no real conflict even with the Vaishnavas, who honor Vishnu as the God of Gods. He, too, is Shiva. As Hari-Hara or Shankaranarayana, Vishnu and Shiva have melted into one person of whom the right, masculine side is more Shiva and the left, feminine side is more Vishnu..." [173-175] Shiva: The Wild God "The east Asian religions do not treat good and evil as totally distinct ontological realities, for they are nothing but illusion (maya) or the play (lila) of God. Therefore it poses no great theological dilemma that Shiva can appear as God or as Devil. The form in which God appears is but a reflection of the soul of the beholder. Zarathustra, however, saw the nature of reality differently. In his awesome vision, the universe becomes fundamentally divided into truth/falsehood, good/evil, white/black, and God/Satan. An unbridgeable chasm splits the two halves of the universe, and the individual human being, caught in the middle, is called upon to make her own ethical, moral choice between them - a choice of either/or .... Zarathustra's followers believe that the situation became ever more desperate as time wore on. Then the merciful God heard the sighing and moaning of his maltreated creation and sent a prophet - Zarathustra - to bring the right teaching. He was born of a virgin who, upon bathing in a holy lake, received the unspoiled sperm that had been kept hidden in its waters since the beginning of time. Despite the devil's efforts to destroy the infant, he managed to grow up to be a simple herdsman and then to spread the right teaching. Zarathustra was a champion of sobriety, condemning self-torture and asceticism as much as inebriated ecstasy... The towering image of Zarathustra, the moral prophet and voice in the wilderness, possessed by righteousness, stands in sharp contrast to the image of the Shaivite sadhu, the ecstatic shaman, the Taoist mystic, or the Buddhist begging monk. He is the model for all the Biblical preachers and prophets to follow, and for the Christian and Muslim zealots that have been hammering their message into the brains of the western half of humanity ever since. We see him reapppear as readily in Muhammad as in Jean Calvin, the father of the Puritans, in American revivalists (a la Jerry Falwell or Billy Graham) and hard-line conservative politicians; he is alive in the fanatic fundamentalism of Osama bin Laden as well as in the moralism of Karl Marx. In the person of Ayathollah Khomeini, who struggled to purify his people and refused to compromise with the Great Satan, the bearded prophet had appeared once again in his land of origin, Persia. After the heathen warlord Alexander the Damned - as the Parsees still call the Macedonian conqueror - demolished the proud empire of the Zarathustrian Persians and burned all their sacred writings, the brilliant star of the religion started to set. Covertly, though, the great river of vision lives on, not only in Judaism and Christianity, but also in other streams, such as Manichaenism, with its ample influence on occultist and esoteric movements (e.g., Rudolf Steiner's anthroposphy.) Islam, too, which has declared total war on Satan and all idols, proves itself a grandchild of Zarathustra with its concern for ritual purity, its obsession with body fluids and excretions, and its mandatory five daily prayers. In each case, the message remains the same, created by the same dramaturge but enacted differently on different stages. The cosmic drama is a linear, historical one. It starts with a creation and concludes with a happy end. Sandwiched in between is the treachery of the villain, the battle between the good creator and the evil destroyer, the arrival of the messenger of the good (a prophet or savior) and the moral injunction to all and everyone to personally enage in the battle for the good. Even Marxism proves to be but a modern, secular expression of the same spirit, enacting the same drama..." [191-197] Shiva: The Wild God "All is Shiva; all is God. But each form, each appearance has its own power, its own character, its own potential. When one is not enmeshed and attached to the fascinating dance of Maya and her countless forms of illusion, then one can realize this. Then sinner and saint, good and evil are equally part of Being. From such a perspective, all appearances are but the child's game that the greater Self plays for its own entertainment. In this game, it can take on any role and any state of being. Thus God can put on the mask of the Savior, the good shepherd, Mother Mary, the Great Goddess, the Ahura Mazda, the Good God; but he can just as well wear the mask of a muderous Bhairava or a frenzied Kali, and thus, by the drama of confusion and suffering, show those who have also violated their dharma, the way to Benares, where the fires of purification burn and the waters of cleansing flow. This is how Shiva can be the devil and still be worshipped with loving devotion, just as Ramakrishna worshipped black Kali as his loving Mother, or, in Mahayna and Vajrayana Buddhism, Buddha can appear as a bug-eyed, fire-breathing demon and still be honored by the devout. These terrible appearances are only mirrors placed in front of the mad, illusion-driven ego. For Shaivites, all the wonderful, terrible, and awesome images that magically make up our reality are but facets of the one Self. For the devotees of Shiva, the ultimate goal is not just to be good, to heap up the merits of good karma and go to heaven - though there is nothing to speak against such worthy aspirations; it is self-understood that one follows the path of virtue. For the Shaivites the goal is to see through the divine masks and recognize the Self; the goal is moksha, liberation from the bondage of finite existence..." [199] Shiva: Wild God "In Shaivite eyes, the battle against Nature is a battle against our Self. And it is time to learn to accept the unloved part of creation and to metamorphose it with our love. It is time for Daksha to invite the seemingly uncouth Shiva to the great sacrificial feast that is Life. Will the princess with the golden ball, the princess of our soul, be able to kiss the ugly cold frog and watch it turn into a handsome, shiny prince, or will the sclerotic, intellectualistic goat-head of Daksha, with its rigid morality, prevail? ----- Note: All that precedes has been written in full awareness that the author himself unwittingly falls into a dualistic view of things: the good monist on one hand, the bad dualist on the other hand. Such is the nature of living in a conditional world, where the gods and the demons churn the primordial ocean. And sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between the two. What more can be said than that Shiva dwells in all, and to reach him, one must go beyond the rending duality?" [205] Shiva: The Wild God "Tantric teachings, meant to guide the human soul into the harmony and spontaneity of God-realization, are recorded in the form of dialogues between the two cosmic lovers, Shiva and Devi. Some of these writings fly on the wings of sublime spirituality, while others degenerate into vile, sinister black magic. An aura of dubiousness clings to many Tantrist gurus, as well. The Tantrist master seems to unabashedly contradict himself. At one time he might say this, and, at another time, that - an inconsistency that is bound to ruffle the logician. However, the guru is not necessarily as illogical as he first seems; neither is he a liar. Each soul is different, and everyone is enmeshed in the spider web of illusion in a distinct way; hence a variety of methods are needed... Tantric taboo-breakers meet in secret circles, hidden from the public eye ... in order to ritually indulge in alchohol, drugs, and dishes of fish and meat - and to practice magical postures of copulation. Sex is experienced in a sacred, not profane context... During the ceremony, the man is none other than Shiva and the woman is none other than Parvati. Their naked bodies are transmuted into the temple in which all the gods of the universe and all the spheres of heaven are contained. The Kaulikas experience themselves in a totally sanctified, divine state before they return as normal mortals back to the everyday world. Once returned to the triviality and hustle bustle of daily existence, they conform to the social norms like any other citizens. Deep inside the soul, however, glows the wondrous knowledge of their true, divine, magical nature. They are initiates into the divine mysteries..." [231-232] Shiva: Wild God of Power and Ecstasy "The divya, the holy man of God, has no need of external ritual. He knows that the wine ... is but the flow of shakti energy back to the center of being, causing the devotee to become inebriated with bliss, and dumb and unsteady on his feet in matters concerning the world. The meal of meat ... indicates the unreserved offering of one's own body, one's flesh and blood to the Lord. The fish ... represents the five senses, which dart about in the ocean of the sensory world. These are offered to Shiva. For the divya, the magical gestures ... are but the spontaneous, natural demeaner of doing the right thing at the right time. The sexual union ... indicates the bliss of successful yoga, the union of thought and action, of inside and outside, of spirit and soul, of Shiva and Shakti. The saints, who have acheived all this, have no need to perform special rituals. They have no need to try to transform the blind sexual drive by means of the symbolism made availible through tantric lore. They have no need to imagine the passage of the kundalini snake and the unfolding of her lotus buds, for they are already in full bloom, overflowing and open to the cosmos. The man of action, the hero ... has left his faintheartedness and fears behind, while at the same time maintaining his virtues. But since he does not have the wisdom of the divya, he sees neither the arbirtrary nature of social conditioning nor the cultural construction of reality and cannot grasp the subtle esoteric secrets. In order to understand the mysteries, he must be given concrete ... down-to-earth points of reference. He must directly confront the apparently repulsive and tabooed aspects of existence. He must look them in the eye, accept and integrate them into the whole, so that they might become wholesome and holy. For the ... hero, the forbidden five M's consist very concretely of the experience of drinking wine, eating fish and meat - sometimes urine and feces, taking on magic postures, and engaging in intimate intercourse. Neither ... path ... is fitting for the man of the herd, the pashu, whose first striving is his security and the satisfaction of his needs and desires. He is much to bound up with his drives to fathom the sublime spirituality of all things. The direct physical enjoyment of the forbidden M's would only cruelly confuse him or leave him addicted to them. Thus, for the pashu the tantric ritual is not much different from the ordinary worship service, the puja..." [234-235] Shiva: The Wild God of Power and Ecstasy "During puja, the ordianary devotional service, as it is celebrated daily at the temples and home altars, the sleeping goddess is awakened by the devotees with song and music, the clanging of bells and cymbals, and the blowing of counch shells. By virtue of the power of imagination, the living image residing deep in the soul is projected onto the stone idol or icon, which becomes animated with the living divine presence. This externalized archetype is greeted reverently with folded hands, graciously welcomed and worshipped. The devotees treat its numinous presence like a beloved and honored guest. They bathe its image in water and fragrances, feed it choice tidbits of food, garland it with flowers, and entertain it with song and dance. Then, after a certain time, after it has blessed the devotees with a glimpse of higher reality, it returns to its divine origin. The same thing happens during a tantric ritual, only, instead of using a lifeless picture or a stone statue, the divine manifests itself in the living bodies of the participants. The foods and wine are thus not enjoyed by ordinary mortals, but by the divine pair themselves, by Shiva and Parvanti. Food and sex are basic to survival. They are of such fundamental concern that all societies surround them with a tight network of prescriptions and proscriptions. Deliberate violation of social conventions regarding food and sex is portentous for both society and the individual. Violation blasts open the image people normally have of themselves and of the world, and allows a temporary manifestation of the awesome void between time, norm, and ego. The Tantrist guru, as an initiator, uses such shock techniques to let the individual glimpse the divine ground of all existence. The use of alcohol and of psychedelic herbal substances ... intensifies this process, as does total nakedness of the body, for clothes are part of the personality's masks..." [235-236] Shiva: The Wild God |