I have a great respect over three characters from Hindu mythology.One being the Siva and second one is SriRam and the other one is Bhishma. I like these characters not because they are super natural powers, for that point presently I am against to believe the concept of super natural power.I came from a family with certain level of orthodox values as any common and typical family that we see in India.So, I was exposed to different gods and their ritual processes all these years in my society.I was also taught with the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata by my grandfather and also by some elder neighbors.My parents made me to run over all kind of Hindu rituals in the name of different festivals and other sacrifices. With these kind of background I was motivated myself to strongly believe in god and used to chant 'Vishnumurthy Asthotram' on every day early morning till recent past.Over the last four or five years I have exposed to a different world along with same world that I have seen previously.This different world developed many internal conflicts in my mind and the new things to which I am being exposed to read and learn are totally contradicting to my previous values what I had practiced and believed. As a new born in the lap of my mother I was with no knowledge on this society and social customs. Whatever I have practiced in past and practicing now is all totally impacted by my parents, gurus and social circumstances.As these impacting components are getting diversified in it's nature my internal rationalities also started their work on practice of my social customs.After going through the basics of many different famous religions and their core values on this world, I have realized at least myself how to practice a religion. My approach towards practice of religion taken some scientific orientation and started getting rid of superstitious belief on gods and ghosts.I have totally stopped chanting of Vishnu mantras.You may misunderstand that I have become atheist.No, I can not accept myself as an atheist because I am not opposing any religion and it's faiths.I am only against to the uncommon attitude of the religion which was introduced into almost all religions and described in a miraculous manner to attract people in order to exploit them.These uncommon attitude was latter encroachments into original doctrines of any religion.So, I am not an atheist, I love to practice any religion with it's core values which are always noble to lead our life in a harmonious way.With this kind of attitude also I am still continuing to love my favorite personalities of Siva, Sri Ram and Bhishma. But, the essence behind loving these personalities is totally different from my childhood days to today. So, in this 'Karthika Masam' the month of celebrations for Siva devotees, I would like to share with you why I love Siva character.
I feel one should love Siva with a scientific spiritual approach instead of superstitious spiritual approach.What is scientific and what is superstitious?.Let me give you my version of explanation to it. If we go to temple and ask lord Siva to fulfill our dreams and aspirations then we are nothing but running on the path of superstitious spiritualism which I prefer to call it as materialistic spirituality. With this kind of materialistic spirituality there is absolutely no use to you and also to our society. Instead it promotes exploitation of people with different means which were well known to us through priestly class dominant society after the end of vedic society. Now let us see what is scientific spirituality. The scientific spirituality is the one which promotes it's principles to regulate your code of conduct to keep you in harmony with society. This scientific spirituality is not available in society as separate religion, but it is available as an internal core part of every religion.This core was covered with so much of mud and waste. So we should try to remove this mud in order to reach the core of the religion. The mud is nothing but what is being practiced as we discussed earlier in the name of materialistic spirituality.So, try to get rid of this materialistic values in your spiritual practice then what is left over is scientific spirituality. How to get rid of this materialistic spirituality in order to practice scientific spiritualism?. For me it is so simple to practice, the only thing that we have to follow is not expecting anything from god.We should realize that the god has no power to give us whatever we expect. Then why should we visit temples and other holy places if god has no power to offer you something. Temples doesn't have super natural or extra natural powers to offer us something, but temples have certain common natural powers which can help us a lot to build our personality development.
The physical posture and appearance of certain gods has great significance to impact our attitude if we succeeds to observe it. The concept of god varies from religion to religion. Some religions preaches practice of idolatry and some rejects it. Even with in the Hindu religion there are different sects which preaches to worship lord Siva in idol form and in non idol form as well. Many temples worship him in linga form.As per history Siva was so primitive god and he was worshiped by Indus valley civilization people also. Indus valley people worshiped him in the name of Pasupati and in the form of linga.The same god appeared in vedic culture also which was basically the culture of Indo-Aryans. Starts from that age to this age he had been worshiped by Indian people as their beloved god. We do not have any kind historical proofs for Vishnu and other gods to be practiced by Indus valley people.This primitive society of Indus valley had worshiped only Pasupati and Mother goddess. So, this way Siva has great significance in our customs starts from initial ages of Indian culture when compared with any other gods.
The main thing that I really appreciate and love to have as an integral part of Hindu religion is the process of paying our respect to Siva in temples or at different places. Let me explain some peculiar characteristics of Siva which is why I love the philosophy of Siva.
Siva was represented to us by our ancestors in the following way: His representation in pictures has great philosophy to teach us in order to lead a simple life.
1.He was made god of all......promotes equality among all people.
If you visit any 'jyothirlingas' in India , you would be straight away allowed to enter sanctum sanctorum (Garbha Gudi) and touch the linga. There is no discrimination on the base of religion,caste or community.This feature is promoting equality among all people.
2.His life style was depicted in most simplified way.
He wears no jewels as like other gods and his physical appearance promotes very simple life style to lead.So this feature helps us to avoid unnecessary luxury in search of beauty and status.It tells us to understand that beauty is not all about the uppermost layer of our skin. If all of us removed of this outer layer then all we looks same in physical appearance.Beauty means a simple life style and it always dwells in inner most values of a person.
3.representation of poison in his throat.
This tells us to hold and sustain the evil effects of dangerous poison with in ourselves if it serves the purpose of distributing nectar to the society.This means take little pain which will not kill you but helps something good to others.
4.Ganga on his head.
Understand that your god himself had given such a top priority to ganga as it is the essential element for any animal survival.So, we should get it in a right sense and utilize water resources in a legitimized way.If Ganga gets polluted then it would put a big question mark for our offspring survival in future.
5.Very simple pooja process.
There is a belief that Siva could be pleased just by offering some bael leaves(Maredu Akulu) and Abhisekham with water.This pooja process is accessible to all people ranging from rich to poor, even a beggar can afford it. So, this process is informing us that anything supreme in society should be equally accessible and affordable to all people irrespective of their economical status.
6.Regarded as ArdhaNriswarudu.
Siva has given half of his body to his wife Parvati devi. This means we should learn from him how to look-after our wife or husband.This posture of ArdhaNariswara represents that both husband and wife should be united by their hearts with each other with no differences.Also, this bondage should last forever till the couple hugs their death.
7. Implementation of Karthika Masam.
This is the month dedicated to Siva and a kind of festival season to Siva devotees.I had a strong nexus with this month in my life.I like this moth a lot than any other month of the year.The people activities during this month is very much recommended as these practices makes all people to get rid of laziness at the time of onset of winter season. Also, it promotes a great harmony among people of village with activities like collective river bathing on early morning, collective inter dining in the name of Vanabojanas. Even the dietary habits of non-vegetarian people would take sudden shift into vegetables which is good for health.It is good for us in many aspects at least to have vegetarian food for one month out of a year.
Coming to the beauty and aesthetic view of Karthika Masam, a person is not sufficient enough with two eyes to feel the beauty of Karthika Dipam glow on the banks of rivers. Also, this river bathing is a kind of play for all village children and most healthy exercise to all. I have personal experience with this environment during my childhood and the kind of joy that I had with this season is inexpressible in my words. A small river canal of my village used to be crowded with most of villagers before the sunrise. It is so pleasant and heart touching to memorize those days.
8. The concept of Trinetra.
This concept of third eye on the forehead of Siva is really a significant one as it has great nexus with the practice of meditation which is a proven practice to have peace of mind. If you close your eyes and start meditating yourself then you will feel as if all your senses concentrated on your forehead. So, we should understand this third eye concept as source of enlightenment or knowledge.
So, I continue to like Siva with above spirit. Siva is not a god for me, but the philosophy of Siva is more greater than a god concept. It is the 'Shiva tatva' which we have to follow but not the Shiva. Historically he was not existed as a person and also mythological teachings have no strong grounds to believe him as super natural power. Instead of struggling between theistic and atheistic feelings,I feel it is better to accept anything from any religion which is giving some good message to society to regulate our code of conduct in a harmonious way.
One can not get rid of of religious practices because the concept of religion is as primitive as the human evolution.But, it is our responsibility to clean up mud covered on top of core values of religion.I recommend all my family members, friends and other people to get rid of superstitious spiritualism and to live in scientific spiritualism.
-- I request you to please excuse me if I hurt your religious sentiments on any grounds --
I feel one should love Siva with a scientific spiritual approach instead of superstitious spiritual approach.What is scientific and what is superstitious?.Let me give you my version of explanation to it. If we go to temple and ask lord Siva to fulfill our dreams and aspirations then we are nothing but running on the path of superstitious spiritualism which I prefer to call it as materialistic spirituality. With this kind of materialistic spirituality there is absolutely no use to you and also to our society. Instead it promotes exploitation of people with different means which were well known to us through priestly class dominant society after the end of vedic society. Now let us see what is scientific spirituality. The scientific spirituality is the one which promotes it's principles to regulate your code of conduct to keep you in harmony with society. This scientific spirituality is not available in society as separate religion, but it is available as an internal core part of every religion.This core was covered with so much of mud and waste. So we should try to remove this mud in order to reach the core of the religion. The mud is nothing but what is being practiced as we discussed earlier in the name of materialistic spirituality.So, try to get rid of this materialistic values in your spiritual practice then what is left over is scientific spirituality. How to get rid of this materialistic spirituality in order to practice scientific spiritualism?. For me it is so simple to practice, the only thing that we have to follow is not expecting anything from god.We should realize that the god has no power to give us whatever we expect. Then why should we visit temples and other holy places if god has no power to offer you something. Temples doesn't have super natural or extra natural powers to offer us something, but temples have certain common natural powers which can help us a lot to build our personality development.
The physical posture and appearance of certain gods has great significance to impact our attitude if we succeeds to observe it. The concept of god varies from religion to religion. Some religions preaches practice of idolatry and some rejects it. Even with in the Hindu religion there are different sects which preaches to worship lord Siva in idol form and in non idol form as well. Many temples worship him in linga form.As per history Siva was so primitive god and he was worshiped by Indus valley civilization people also. Indus valley people worshiped him in the name of Pasupati and in the form of linga.The same god appeared in vedic culture also which was basically the culture of Indo-Aryans. Starts from that age to this age he had been worshiped by Indian people as their beloved god. We do not have any kind historical proofs for Vishnu and other gods to be practiced by Indus valley people.This primitive society of Indus valley had worshiped only Pasupati and Mother goddess. So, this way Siva has great significance in our customs starts from initial ages of Indian culture when compared with any other gods.
The main thing that I really appreciate and love to have as an integral part of Hindu religion is the process of paying our respect to Siva in temples or at different places. Let me explain some peculiar characteristics of Siva which is why I love the philosophy of Siva.
Siva was represented to us by our ancestors in the following way: His representation in pictures has great philosophy to teach us in order to lead a simple life.
1.He was made god of all......promotes equality among all people.
If you visit any 'jyothirlingas' in India , you would be straight away allowed to enter sanctum sanctorum (Garbha Gudi) and touch the linga. There is no discrimination on the base of religion,caste or community.This feature is promoting equality among all people.
2.His life style was depicted in most simplified way.
He wears no jewels as like other gods and his physical appearance promotes very simple life style to lead.So this feature helps us to avoid unnecessary luxury in search of beauty and status.It tells us to understand that beauty is not all about the uppermost layer of our skin. If all of us removed of this outer layer then all we looks same in physical appearance.Beauty means a simple life style and it always dwells in inner most values of a person.
3.representation of poison in his throat.
This tells us to hold and sustain the evil effects of dangerous poison with in ourselves if it serves the purpose of distributing nectar to the society.This means take little pain which will not kill you but helps something good to others.
4.Ganga on his head.
Understand that your god himself had given such a top priority to ganga as it is the essential element for any animal survival.So, we should get it in a right sense and utilize water resources in a legitimized way.If Ganga gets polluted then it would put a big question mark for our offspring survival in future.
5.Very simple pooja process.
There is a belief that Siva could be pleased just by offering some bael leaves(Maredu Akulu) and Abhisekham with water.This pooja process is accessible to all people ranging from rich to poor, even a beggar can afford it. So, this process is informing us that anything supreme in society should be equally accessible and affordable to all people irrespective of their economical status.
6.Regarded as ArdhaNriswarudu.
Siva has given half of his body to his wife Parvati devi. This means we should learn from him how to look-after our wife or husband.This posture of ArdhaNariswara represents that both husband and wife should be united by their hearts with each other with no differences.Also, this bondage should last forever till the couple hugs their death.
7. Implementation of Karthika Masam.
This is the month dedicated to Siva and a kind of festival season to Siva devotees.I had a strong nexus with this month in my life.I like this moth a lot than any other month of the year.The people activities during this month is very much recommended as these practices makes all people to get rid of laziness at the time of onset of winter season. Also, it promotes a great harmony among people of village with activities like collective river bathing on early morning, collective inter dining in the name of Vanabojanas. Even the dietary habits of non-vegetarian people would take sudden shift into vegetables which is good for health.It is good for us in many aspects at least to have vegetarian food for one month out of a year.
Coming to the beauty and aesthetic view of Karthika Masam, a person is not sufficient enough with two eyes to feel the beauty of Karthika Dipam glow on the banks of rivers. Also, this river bathing is a kind of play for all village children and most healthy exercise to all. I have personal experience with this environment during my childhood and the kind of joy that I had with this season is inexpressible in my words. A small river canal of my village used to be crowded with most of villagers before the sunrise. It is so pleasant and heart touching to memorize those days.
8. The concept of Trinetra.
This concept of third eye on the forehead of Siva is really a significant one as it has great nexus with the practice of meditation which is a proven practice to have peace of mind. If you close your eyes and start meditating yourself then you will feel as if all your senses concentrated on your forehead. So, we should understand this third eye concept as source of enlightenment or knowledge.
So, I continue to like Siva with above spirit. Siva is not a god for me, but the philosophy of Siva is more greater than a god concept. It is the 'Shiva tatva' which we have to follow but not the Shiva. Historically he was not existed as a person and also mythological teachings have no strong grounds to believe him as super natural power. Instead of struggling between theistic and atheistic feelings,I feel it is better to accept anything from any religion which is giving some good message to society to regulate our code of conduct in a harmonious way.
One can not get rid of of religious practices because the concept of religion is as primitive as the human evolution.But, it is our responsibility to clean up mud covered on top of core values of religion.I recommend all my family members, friends and other people to get rid of superstitious spiritualism and to live in scientific spiritualism.
-- I request you to please excuse me if I hurt your religious sentiments on any grounds --
Nice post, book Maha Shivaratri Pooja
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