Not Who but WHAT is Shiva
For a believer he is God, for a Yogi he is Aadiyogi and
Mahayogi, for the west he is a mythological character, for a novice he is a devil
and a destroyer, in Chakras he is Sahsrara, in distinction he is Purusha. In
description, Devas and Danavs all worship him. He doesn’t discriminate, there
is no good and evil for him, no right or wrong. He doesn’t subscribe to
morality.
For a seeker, limiting himself to knowing “who” is Shiva
would be impeding his journey. Knowing “what” is Shiva will take him to a more
comprehensive truth. The more you get closer to “what”, you’ll initially find
it an antithesis of “who” and ultimately you’ll see “who” is “what” and “what”
is “who”. They are different yet one.
The whole existence in essence has dual character. There is
light and dark, there is good and evil, there is physical there is
non-physical, there is male and female, there is permanent and impermanent. The
earlier belief in Science was that everything has a source, now the new
findings say everything appears from nothing and disappears into nothingness.
The question that human mind would find hard to fathom is what is “nothingness”.
In the eastern spirituality, its the Shiva or the Purush and the whole creation
represent Shakti or Prukriti. In Chinese culture the duality of existence is
described as Yin and Yang.
Now when one try to understand “nothingness” with his
limited mind, its hard to ever understand it. That’s why Shiva is described
neither as mind or intelligence nor ego but the supreme consciousness. Shiva
means “which is not”, nothingness means “no thing”.
If you look into the space, all the heavenly bodies, the
planets, the Sun, the Stars and the Moons, they are just small objects placed
in the Universe, the Universe is mainly space. Its all a like a small happening
on a vast endless nothingness. Its nothingness only that can hold everything.
Something can’t hold “everything” but “nothingness” does hold everything. It is
everywhere and in everything, i.e. omnipresent. It is indeed powerful, i.e.
omnipotent. This earth looks like a big planet but its less than a speck of
dust in the Cosmos. Tomorrow if it disappears from the Universe, nobody would
give a damn about it. But the nothingness and the dark will always be there. It
was there before, it is there and it’ll always be there. It has no birth and no
death. Its permanent and everything else, even the Sun or the Planets or the
light are just a small happening and impermanent.