Nondual Highlights
Issue #1680 Saturday, January 17,
2004 Editor: Mark
Shiva (Sanskrit: Auspicious One), or Siva, is one of the main
Deities of Hinduism, worshipped as the paramount lord by the
Saivite sects of India. Shiva is one of the most complex gods of
India, embodying seemingly contradictory qualities. He is the
destroyer and the restorer, the great ascetic and the symbol of
sensuality, the benevolent herdsman of souls and the wrathful
avenger.
Shiva was originally known as Rudra, a minor deity addressed only
three times in the Rig Veda. He gained importance after absorbing
some of the characteristics of an earlier fertility god and
became Shiva, part of the trinity, or trimurti, with Vishnu and
Brahma.
Shiva's female consort and wife is Parvati; because of his
generosity and reverence towards Parvati, Shiva is considered an
ideal role model for a husband. The divine couple together with
their sons - the six-headed Skanda and the elephant headed Ganesh
- reside on Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas.
His guardian is Nandi (the white bull), whose statue can often be
seen watching over the main shrine. The bull is said to embody
sexual energy, fertility. Riding on its back, Shiva is in control
of these impulses.
He often holds a trident, which represents the Hindu trinity of
Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. It is also said to represent the
threefold qualities of nature: creation, preservation and
destruction, although preservation is usually attributed to
Vishnu. As the destroyer Shiva is dark and terrible, encircled
with serpents and a crown of skulls.
Shiva holds a skull that represents samsara, the cycle of life,
death and rebirth. Samsara is a central belief in Hinduism. Shiva
himself also represents this complete cycle because he is
Mahakala the Lord of Time, destroying and creating all things.
Shiva is represented in a variety of forms. One such form is as a
lingam. The ovoid shape is a representation of the absolute
perfection of Lord Shiva - if that which is beyond form had to be
given form, the lingam would be the closest form to the mystical
experience of the absolute perfection of Shiva. Shiva is often
pictured in a pacific mood with his consort Parvati, as the
cosmic dancer Nataraja, as a naked ascetic, as a mendicant
beggar, as a yogi, and as the androgynous union of Shiva and
Parvati in one body (Ardhanarisvara).
When Shiva holds the center of the stage, the role of the
personalized Brahman is colored with death and destruction.
Shiva's stern asceticism casts a blight over the fields of
rebirth. His presence negates and transcends the kaleidoscope of
sufferings and joys. Nevertheless, he bestows wisdom and peace
and is not only terrible but profoundly benign.Shiva's nature at
once transcends and includes all the polarities of the living
world.
AUM - the mystical utterance stemming from the sacred language of
Vedic praise and incantation, is understood as an expression and
affirmation of the totality of creation. A - is the state of
waking consciousness, together with its world of gross
experience. U - is the state of dreaming consciousness, together
with its experience of the subtle shapes of dream. M - is the
state off dreamless sleep, the natural condition of quiescent
undifferentiated consciousness, wherein every experience is
dissolved into a blissful non-experience, a mass of potential
consciousness.
The plentitude of Shiva's mutually antagonistic functions and
aspects is made evident by the fact that his worshippers invoke
him by a hundred names. Occasionally we find the multitude of
aspects reduced to five. 1. The Beneficent Manifestation
(anugrahamurti), 2. The Destructive Manifestation
(samaharamurti), 3. The Vagrant Medicant (bhiksatanamurti), 4.
The Lord of Dancers (nrttamurti), 5. The Great Lord
(mahesamurti).
The text for this piece is from "Myths and Symbols in India
Art and Civilization" by Heinrich Zimmer.
A sandstone stele depicting Shiva Vrishavahanamurti, standing
with his/her weight resting on the left leg, the right-hand side
of the body resting against the head of the bull Nandi, who
stands behind. The god is four armed, holding a lotus and trident
on his right side and a waterflask and a book on his left. At his
feet are two attendants; one is soothing Nandi whilst the other
looks on.
Vrishavahanamurti, the form of Shiva resting against Nandi, is
the form he assumes when blessing devotees with freedom from the
cycle of existence. Those granted this release will remain with
Shiva in eternity. This is one of the primary icons of Shiva as a
benign god.
Shiva rests rather languidly against Nandi, in a pose designed to
depict him in his fullness of beauty; this is one extreme of his
character, the other being that of unimaginable ferocity. His is
a contradictory nature and one can never take him for granted. In
essence, Shiva is an embodiment of the forces of nature and it is
through him that the elements can at one moment protect and
encourage the growth of crops, whilst at the next they can
destroy, bringing poverty and despair.
This is one of the earliest iconographical forms of Shiva,
evidenced by coins of the Kushan period which have this image on
the reverse. The easy sway of the god's body allows the arms to
pose evenly around him, displaying the various attributes which
he holds. One right hand holds a lotus, the other, now broken,
clasps a trident of which the handle is visible. This identifies
the god as Shiva, and is not intended to be used as a weapon in
this image which is essentially benign; it also acts as a
reminder of male strength. On the left hand side one hand clasps
a water bottle, which contains the water of life and identifies
Shiva's role as the universal healer. The other hand holds a
book. The attributes on the left represent natural wealth and
intellectual forces, reminders of Shiva's role as a bringer of
abundance, both physical and spiritual. Two tiny devotees stand
at the god's feet. Whilst one looks outwards, the other is
engaged in keeping Nandi still, in order not to disturb the god.
Nandi, whose name means "bringer of joy", represents
reliability, in contrast to the character of his master. His
presence is effectively a reminder of the benign side of Shiva's
nature and in the temple context his figure is usually seated
outside, guarding the doorway through which the devotee
approaches Shiva. According to Kramrisch (1982:xxi) he embodies
Dharma, the principal of cosmic and human law. He also represents
the taming of animal nature and the notion that everything in
nature can be controlled by the power of Shiva.
The squared-off shape of the stone slab indicates it was one of a
group of sculptures depicting Shiva in his various guises, which
usually appear high up on the outer walls of a temple. The column
on one side suggests it was integral to the temple architecture,
rather than being a stele placed in a separately built niche. The
devotee on first entering the temple compound, circumambulates
the outer walls of the building where he sees the great god in
all his forms, reminding him of the encompassing personality he
is. In contrast, the representation of Shiva inside the Garbi
Griha, the central shrine, is normally the aniconic lingham, i.
e. the essential core of his nature. The images outside fire the
imagination and compete with the outside world for the devotee's
attention. Once inside the temple and away from the temptations
of the profane world, the lingham concentrates the thoughts and
reminds the worshipper of the timeless, unchanging power it
contains.
The statues also enhance the temple, attracting worshippers and
thereby increasing its importance and religious significance. In
India temples are generally sited at river crossings where
travellers might naturally stop for a while and they would become
popular pilgrimage places. If the building was admired, this
reflected on its patron, usually a local ruler or official. After
the collapse of the Gupta Empire, in the early 7th century, a
mass of Rajput clan leaders came to power, the more ambitious of
whom extended their territories as far as they could. Some of
these Rajput princes had dubious claims to their thrones and
solved the problems this caused by patronising the local Brahmans
and building temples. In return, the Brahmans supported them,
confirming their sometimes spurious Kshatriya status. Rivalry
between rulers and between state officials within a principality,
created pressure on the individual to build fine temples. The
architects and sculptors travelled from state to state satisfying
the demands of their employers and the result was a wealth of
beautiful temples spread across north India.
At the same time, localised cults became absorbed into mainstream
Hinduism. Local Brahmans would draw diverse gods into their orbit
since they were empowered by the rulers to look after the
religious affairs of the state. At the same time the itinerant
sculptors who produced statues to satisfy the demands of one area
would take the idea to the next place they went to work. This may
explain why Shiva, in particular, and Vishnu, to a slightly
lesser extent, take on so many guises.
In this image of Shiva, there are elements which help to arrive
at a date and place of origin. The rapt expression of the face,
the jewellery, in particular the jasmine flower-shaped beads of
the collar, and the lotus aureole behind the god all point to an
early 10th century date. The wonderfully carved chignon too seems
to be of this period as later on in the 10th century it loses the
intricacy of detail and appears more dome-like. An almost
identical form is seen in a late Pallava image of Kalyanasundara
Shiva, dated 875 (Nagaswamy 1983:1)
The general appearance points to Rajasthan or Western Madhya
Pradesh as the place of origin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blurton, T. Richard: Hindu Art, London, 1992
Harle, J. C. : The Art and Architecture of the Indian
Subcontinent, London, 1986
Kramrisch, Stella: Manifestations of Shiva, Philadelphia, 1981 .
In Motion Magazine: Why are patents the new form of colonialism?
Dr. Vandana Shiva: Patents are a replay of colonization as it
took place 500 years ago in a number of ways. Interestingly, even
at that time, when Columbus set sail and other adventurers like
him, they also set out with pieces of paper that were called the
letters patent which gave the power to the adventurers to claim
as property the territory they found anywhere in the world that
was not ruled by white Christian princes.
Contemporary patents on life seem to be of a similar quality.
They are pieces of paper issued by patent offices of the world
that basically are telling corporations that if there's knowledge
or living material, plants, seeds, medicines which the white man
has not known about before, claim it on our behalf, and make
profits out of it.
That then has become the basis of phenomena that we call
biopiracy, where seeds such as the Basmati seed, the aromatic
rice from India, which we have grown for centuries, right in my
valley is being claimed as novel invention by RiceTec.
Neem, which we have used for millennia for pest control, for
medicine, which is documented in every one of our texts, which my
grandmother and mother have used for everyday functions in the
home, for protecting grain, for protecting silks and woolens, for
pest control, is treated as invention held by Grace, the chemical
company.
This epidemic of piracy is very much like the epidemic of piracy
which was named colonialism 500 years ago. I think we will soon
need to name this round of piracy through patents as
recolonialization as a new colonialization which differs from the
old only in this - the old colonialization only took over land,
the new colonialization is taking over life itself.
In Motion Magazine: Just a moment ago in your speech to the
conference, you said you'd like to bring in a third world
perspective. Can you bring that into this discussion?
Dr. Vandana Shiva: The third world is that part of the world
which became the colonies in the last colonialization. It wasn't
an impoverished world then, in fact the reason it was
colonialized is because it had the wealth. Columbus set sail to
get control of the spice trade from India, it's just that he
landed on the wrong continent and named the original inhabitants
of this land Indian thinking he had arrived in India. Latin
America was colonialized because of the gold it had. None of
these countries were impoverished. Today they are called the
poorer part of the world because the wealth has been drained out.
People have survived in the third world because in spite of the
wealth that has been taken from them, in spite of their gold and
their land having been taken from them, they still have
biodiversity. They still have that last resource in the form of
seed, medicinal plants, fodder, which allowed them access to
production It allowed them to meet their needs of health and
nutrition. Now this last resource of the poor, who had been left
deprived by the last round of colonialization is also being taken
over through patenting. And seeds which peasants have freely
saved, exchanged, used, are being treated as the property of
corporations. New legal property formations are being shaped as
intellectual property rights treaties, through the World Trade
Organization, trying to prevent peasants of the third world from
having free access to their own seed, to have free exchange of
their own seed. So that all peasants, all farmers around the
world would be buying seed every year thus creating a new market
for the global seed industry.
80 percent of India takes care of its health needs through
medicinal plants that grow around in back yards, that grow in the
fields, in the forests, which people freely collect. No one has
had to pay a price for the gifts of nature. Today everyone of
those medicines has been patented and within five, ten years down
the line we could easily have a situation in which the same
pharmaceutical industry that has created such serious health
damages and is now shifting to safe health products in the form
of medicinal plant-based drugs, Chinese medicine, aromatic
medicine from India, will prevent the use. They don't even have
to come and make it illegal because long before they have to take
that step, they take over the resource base, they take over the
plants, they take over the supply, they take over the markets,
and leave people absolutely deprived of access.
What we are seeing right now is a situation in which the third
world, which has been the main supplier of biodiversity, the main
producer of food in the world, where the majority of people are
engaged in food production, is being attempted to be converted
into a consumer society. But you can't have a consumer society
with poor people and therefore what you will have is deprivation,
destitution, disease, hunger, epidemics, hunger, malnutrition,
famine and civil war. What is being sown is the greed of the
corporations of stealing the last resources of the poor. It
really is seeds of uncontrollable violence and decay of societies
on a very large scale.
In Motion Magazine: You touched on it, but what seems key to this
takeover is what the RAFI (Rural Advancement Foundation
International) people call the "terminator technology".
Can you talk about that?
Dr. Vandana Shiva: When we plant a seed there's a very simple
prayer that every peasant in India says: "Let the seed be
exhaustless, let it never get exhausted, let it bring forth seed
next year." Farmers have such pride in saying "this is
the tenth generation seeds that I'm planting," "this is
the fifth generation seed that I'm planting." Just the other
day I had a seed exchange fair in my valley and a farmer brought
Basmati aromatic rice seed and he said "this is five
generations we've been planting this in our family". So far
human beings have treated it as their duty to save seed and
ensure its continuity. But that prayer to let the seed be
exhaustless seems to be changing into the prayer, "let this
seed get terminated so that I can make profits every year"
which is the prayer that Monsanto is speaking through the
terminator technology -- a technology whose aim is merely to
prevent seed from germinating so that they don't have to spend on
policing.
It's not that they don't yet have means. Hybrid seeds are also
not good for saving. It was the first time they found a tool to
force farmers to come back to them. A market every year. But the
difference is that hybrid seeds don't give good seed. It's not
that they fail to germinate. They will still segregate into their
parent lines. They'll still give you some kind of crop. You will
not have absolute devastation.
Patents are also a away to prevent farmers from saving seed. But
with patents you still have to do policing, you still have to
mobilize your detectives to ensure that farmers aren't saving
seeds. The terminator is an extremely secure technology for
corporations like Monsanto because neither do they have to do the
policing, nor do they have to worry whether some segregation
works, now you just basically terminate. But this is not just a
violence against farmers whose basic right, in my view, is seed
saving. A farmer's duty, is protecting the earth, maintaining
it's fertility, and maintaining the fertility of seed. That is
part of being a farmer. A farmer is not a low-paid tractor
driver, that's a modern definition of what a farmer is. The real
definition of a farmer is a person who relates to the land and
relates to the seed and keeps it for future generations, keeps
renewing it, fertility.
The search for this technology comes out of a violence to that
basic ethic that farmers must have if they are to be good
farmers. But it is also even deeper because now it is becoming a
violence against nature because in a way Monsanto is saying we
will stop evolution because evolution creates freedom.
more here - interview with Dr. Vandana Shiva
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. - Lasers streaking spaceward from
the Directed Energy Directorate's Starfire Optical Range sense
atmospheric distortions. This Air Force Research Laboratory
directorate pioneered technologies that use lasers and deformable
optics to sense and correct for these distortions so that objects
in space can be seen clearly. (COPYRIGHT O1998 MARBLE STREET
STUDIO)
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. - Shiva Star is a collection of
capacitors that can store electricity and then quickly discharge
that electricity to form a plasma - the hot, gaseous atmosphere
of stars. Directed Energy Directorate scientists are conducting
research on plasmas and how they might be used as 21st century
weapons. (OFFICIAL USAF PHOTO
The Shiva Foundation was formed to open the dialogue around
issues of grief and loss in such a way that honors loss in the
cycle of life. The Hindu god Shiva dances the cosmic dance of
creation and destruction teaching us that each act of destruction
calls for an act of creation. We take that into our grief to
teach us that we heal our loss through acts of creation.
Grieving takes time. We owe it to ourselves and to each other to
feel the pain, to feel the fear, to feel the anxiety and,
ultimately, to live the questions until the answers begin to
reveal themselves to us. The great German poet Rainer Marie Rilke
says it for us: Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your
heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek
the answers which cannot be given you because you would not be
able to live them. And the point is to live everything. (So) live
the questions now...
Gangaji: When fear of death is directly investigated, it is
discovered that only form is born and dies. Consciousness is free
of formation, free of birth, free of death.
Question: I have the experience of a continuing dread of death
that just hangs around me like a cloud.
Gangaji: If you invite the cloud called death closer, you can
experience it directly. In this extraordinary experience, what
dies and what remains is discovered.
Question: How do I do that?
Gangaji: By being still. By neither repressing nor following any
thought that arises. By not moving the mind in any direction. By
ceasing all attempts to escape.
- Excerpt from You Are That! - Satsang With
Gangaji, published by Satsang Press.
