Lord Shiva

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. Nobody can be more horrible than Shiva! The worst possible descriptions have been given to him. There are descriptions of Shiva having walked around with human excrement on his body. He went through everything any human being could ever go through. A complex amalgamation of all the qualities of existence has 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. But you would have no problem with anything, if only you could accept this man who is a terrible combination of everything put together. He is the most beautiful, but he is also the ugliest. He is a great ascetic, and also a family person. H...

In the yogic culture, the snake is a symbolism for kundalini, which is the unmanifest energy within you. The nature of kundalini is such that when it is still, you do not even know itexists. Only when it moves, you realize there is so much power within you. Until it moves, it is almost non-existent. Because of this, kundalini is symbolized as a snake, because a coiled-up snake is so hard to see unless it moves. Similarly, you do not see this coiled-up energy unless it moves. If your kundalini is aroused, miraculous things that you cannot believe possible will happen with you. An unleashing of a completely new level of energy begins and your body and everything behaves in a completely different way. This is the reason for the symbolism of Shiva and a snake. It indicates that his energies have reached the peak. Mysticism and snakes cannot be separated because this creature has come endowed with a certain dimension of perception. This is a reptile that must be crawling on the grou...

There are many names for Shiva. One name that is very commonly used is Soma or Somasundara. Soma could literally mean the moon, but soma essentially means inebriation or intoxication. If one does not get inebriated, not with outside substances but with the life process itself, the simple process of waking up in the morning, attending to your body’s needs, eating, earning your living, protecting yourself from all the predators around you and going back to bed every day can take such a big toll. That’s all that is happening to most human beings right now. The simple process of life has turned into a hell. This is simply because they are just trying to live life without drinking from it. The moon is referred to as soma, which means the source of intoxication. If you have gone out on a moonlit night somewhere where there are no electric lights, or if you just look at the moonlight, slowly, you will get lightheaded. Have you noticed this? We can do it without the moonlight also, but m...

Shiva’s trishul represents the three fundamental aspects of life. In the yogic tradition it is called Rudra, Hara and Sadashiva. These are the three fundamental dimensions of life that are symbolized in many ways. They can also be called Ida, Pingala and Sushumna. These are the three basic nadis – the left, the right and the central – in the pranamaya kosha, or the energy body of the human system. Nadis are pathways or channels of prana in the system. There are 72,000 nadis that spring from the three fundamental ones. These nadis don’t have a physical manifestation. If you cut the body and look in, you will not find them. But as you become more aware, you will notice the energy is not moving at random, it is moving in established pathways. There are 72,000 different ways in which the energy, or prana moves. The Pingala and Ida represent the basic duality in the existence. It is this duality which we traditionally personify as Shiva and Shakti. You can simply call it masculine and...

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. Nandi is not expecting Shiva to come out tomorrow. He is not anticipating or expecting anything. He is just waiting. 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 simply sit. People have always misunderstood meditation as some kind of activity. No – it is a quality. That is the fundamental difference. Prayer means you are trying to talk to God. Meditation means you are willing to listen to God. 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 ju...

Shiva has always been referred to as Triambaka because he has a third eye. The third eye does not mean someone’s forehead cracked and something came out! It simply means another dimension of perception has opened up. The two eyes can see only that which is physical. If I just cover them with my hand, they cannot look beyond that. That is how limited they are. If the third eye opens, it means another dimension of perception, which is inward-looking and looks at life completely differently, has opened up and everything that can be perceived is perceived. If your perception has to evolve and enhance itself, the most important thing is that your energy has to evolve and enhance itself. The whole process of yoga is to evolve and refine your energies in such a way that your perception is enhanced and the third eye opens. 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. ...

Third Eye Nandi Trishul Moon Serpent