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Understanding The Forms of

Shiva

13 Feb 2015 3 Comments

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HISTORY OF YOGA

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In Indian tradition, Shiva

has many forms, each
representing a powerful
possibility for inner
evolution. Sadhguru looks at a few forms,
and explains the basis underlying each of
them.

Bholenath

Sadhguru: 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 doesn’t 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.

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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.

Nataraja

Sadhguru: 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 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.

Ardhanarishvara

Sadhguru: 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, it is 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

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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.

Kalabhairava

Sadhguru: 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. But 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

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Sadhguru: 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 Pournami, 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. 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. It was just an
outpouring of 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.

Triambaka

Sadhguru: 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

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person or that person and you think
something about him, but you are not
able to see the 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
Mahashivarathri. 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. This
is not religion, this is the science of inner
evolution.

May this Mahashivarathri night not just

be a night of wakefulness, but let this also
become a night of intense aliveness and
awareness for you. It is my wish and
blessing that you make use of this
wonderful gift that nature offers us on
this day. I hope all of you ride this
upsurge and know the beauty and ecstasy
of what it means when we say “Shiva.”

Editor's Note: Download Sadhguru's

ebook, Shiva - Ultimate Outlaw, along
with Vairagya, an album of sacred chants
(also available as an Android App).
They're free!
Download Now

You may also like

Who Is Shiva: Man, Myth or
Divine?

Chidambaram Temple - How

And Why It Was Created

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 Ardhanarishvara – When the
Ultimate Man Became Half-
Woman

Sadhguru on the Bhagavad

Gita: From Action to Yoga

Benefits of Surya Namaskar:

How It Transforms Your
System
Living Strong and Wise

POSTED YOGA &

IN: MEDITATION,
HISTORY OF
YOGA
TAGS: Shiva

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Ambedkar Podeti
• 3 months ago
Shambho!!! Excellent artistic
way of representing the
pictures...Hats off to ISHA
Web team...
12 • Reply • Share ›

Jaya • 3 months ago

Not to understand seek
1 • Reply • Share ›

Jaya • 2 months ago

Lord Sundareswarar I bow
down
• Reply • Share ›

Kiran • 3 months ago

when is mahashivarathri?
• Reply • Share ›

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