Who is Siva

TL;DR

Siva is the supreme consciousness that transforms and dissolves : the eternal force that clears away the old to make space for renewal and evolution. Beyond all form yet appearing in form when needed, Siva represents the aspect of ultimate reality that leads beings toward liberation through destruction of ignorance, ego, and illusion. This divine presence dwells in every heart as pure awareness. Through practices like chanting "Om Namah Sivaya," meditation, and devotional worship, seekers connect with this consciousness that dances the universe into existence and dissolution. Core truth: Siva is not a destroyer but a regenerator, removing what no longer serves so souls can evolve toward their true nature of infinite bliss and freedom.

Siva represents one of the fundamental forces within the cosmic consciousness. When we speak of Brahman, the ultimate reality that pervades everything, Siva embodies the aspect wrapped in what yogic philosophy calls tamo-guna, the quality of dissolution and transformation. This divine presence exists everywhere while simultaneously dwelling in the heights of consciousness symbolized by Mount Kailas. Those who worship other forms of divinity, such as Rama (another manifestation of the divine), also recognize Siva, as Rama himself paid homage at Rameswaram.

Understanding the Nature of Siva

The name Siva translates to eternal auspiciousness and happiness. When you hear references to the sacred syllable Om, understand that Siva and Om share the same essence. Ancient texts describe this state as peaceful, auspicious, and without duality. Here lies a profound teaching: every person, regardless of their social position, can meditate on Siva's name and qualities.

Siva exists as the supreme reality beyond time. This consciousness has no form in its absolute state, depends on nothing, permeates all space, stands alone without comparison, never began, needs no cause, remains untainted by worldly qualities, exists by its own power, enjoys eternal freedom, and maintains perfect purity. This consciousness expresses infinite bliss and infinite intelligence.

The Trinity: One Reality, Three Functions

Many people misunderstand the relationship between Siva and Vishnu (the divine aspect of preservation). These represent the same ultimate truth seen from different angles. Ancient wisdom teaches that Vishnu forms the heart of Siva, just as Siva forms the heart of Vishnu. The apparent division between followers of different deities arose relatively recently in spiritual history, within the last seven hundred years or so. Before this period, practitioners recognized the unity behind all divine forms.

Consider how you wear different clothes for different occasions. When performing judicial duties, you wear formal robes. At home, you choose comfortable attire. In sacred spaces, you select appropriate garments. Your essential nature remains unchanged, only your external presentation shifts according to function. Similarly, the one divine consciousness appears as Brahma when creating (associated with rajas, the quality of activity), as Vishnu when preserving (associated with sattva, the quality of harmony), and as Siva when dissolving (associated with tamas, the quality that enables transformation).

These three aspects correspond to our daily states of consciousness. During waking hours, sattva predominates, linking to Vishnu. In dreams, rajas dominates, connecting to Brahma. In deep sleep, tamas prevails, relating to Siva. Beyond these three lies turiya, the fourth state of pure awareness, which represents the absolute Brahman. Because the deep sleep state borders this fourth state directly, sincere worship of Siva can lead practitioners quickly toward ultimate realization.

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Siva as Regenerator, Not Destroyer

People commonly misunderstand Siva's role, calling this aspect the destroyer. Look deeper at what actually occurs. When your physical body becomes unsuitable for continued growth due to disease, aging, or other limitations, this divine force removes the worn vessel and provides a fresh, vital form for further development. This process serves evolution, not destruction. The intention behind this transformation aims to bring all beings swiftly to divine realization.

Siva embodies divine love. This grace flows without limit. As both savior and inner teacher, this consciousness works constantly to free individual souls from their entanglement in material existence. Out of profound compassion for humanity, this divine presence assumes the role of guide. The ultimate wish remains that everyone should recognize their true nature and attain the blissful state of union with Siva. This divine awareness watches over each soul's journey and assists their spiritual progress.

As an embodiment of wisdom, Siva represents the light of all lights, the supreme radiance, the self-illuminating consciousness. The cosmic dance performed by this divine aspect expresses the rhythm and movement of universal spirit. When this dance unfolds, destructive forces and darkness tremble and dissolve.

Reading the Symbolic Form

Traditional depictions show Siva holding a deer in the upper left hand. The right lower hand grasps a trident. Fire and a small drum appear in other hands, along with weapons. Five serpents serve as ornaments. A garland of skulls hangs as decoration. The figure stands upon a dwarf demon holding a cobra. The face points south. Each detail carries meaning.

The trident held in the right hand represents the three fundamental qualities of nature: sattva (harmony), rajas (activity), and tamas (inertia). This symbol demonstrates sovereignty, as the divine governs the entire world through these three qualities. The small drum in the left hand symbolizes primordial sound, the original Om from which all language emerges. According to tradition, the Sanskrit language itself came forth from the sounds of this drum.

The crescent moon adorning the head indicates complete mastery over the mind. The flowing Ganga represents the nectar of immortality. The elephant skin worn as clothing shows conquest over pride, as the elephant symbolizes this quality. The tiger skin upon which Siva sits demonstrates victory over desire, with the tiger representing lust. Holding the deer signifies removal of the mind's tendency to jump restlessly from one object to another, just as deer bound swiftly from place to place.

Serpents adorning the neck convey wisdom and eternity, as these creatures live for extended periods. The three eyes include the famous third eye of wisdom positioned in the center of the forehead. The white complexion teaches silently about the importance of maintaining a pure heart, entertaining pure thoughts, and remaining free from crookedness, manipulation, cunning behavior, envy, and animosity.

Three white lines of sacred ash mark the forehead. This carries instruction about destroying three fundamental impurities: egoism, action performed with expectation of reward, and illusion. The ash also reminds practitioners to eliminate three types of desire: for property, for sensual pleasure, and for wealth. Additionally, it points toward releasing three deep tendencies: attachment to worldly recognition, identification with the physical body, and clinging to intellectual knowledge.

The altar standing before the inner sanctum in temples teaches about sacrifice. Before approaching the divine, seekers must offer up their sense of individual self and their attachment to possessions. The bull that serves as vehicle represents dharma, the principle of cosmic law and righteousness. Siva riding upon this bull shows divine protection of dharma and embodiment of righteousness itself.

The Practice of Abhisheka

In Siva temples, you will notice a vessel made of copper or brass suspended above the lingam, with a small opening at its base. Abhisheka means the practice of pouring substances over the sacred form. Devotees pour water, milk, clarified butter, yogurt, honey, coconut water, and sacred mixtures while chanting mantras. This ritual cools the fiery third eye. Since Siva consumed poison from the cosmic ocean and wears the Ganga and moon to cool the head, continuous abhisheka serves as an essential part of worship.

Sacred Ganga water, milk, clarified butter, honey, rose water, coconut juice, and lime juice all serve for abhisheka. After each pouring, pure water cleanses the form. Devotees consider the water used in abhisheka extremely sacred and receive it as blessed offering. The liquid purifies the heart and destroys accumulated negative patterns. You must accept it with deep feeling and faith.

When performing abhisheka with devotion and inner feeling, the mind becomes concentrated. The heart fills with the divine image and sacred thoughts. Awareness of the body and its relationships fades. The sense of separate self gradually dissolves. In this state of forgetfulness of limitations, you begin experiencing and tasting eternal bliss. Reciting sacred mantras during this practice purifies the mind and fills it with sattvic qualities.

When you offer sweet mixtures, honey, and milk to the divine form, thoughts about your own body diminish. Selfish tendencies slowly vanish. Immense joy arises. You feel moved to increase your offerings. Through this process, self-sacrifice and self-surrender naturally develop. From your heart comes the spontaneous recognition: I belong to you, divine presence. Everything belongs to you.

Historical accounts tell of Kannappa, a devoted hunter who performed abhisheka using water from his own mouth for the lingam at Kalahasti in southern India, thereby pleasing Siva. This divine consciousness responds to pure devotion. The inner attitude matters far more than external displays. According to the story, Siva told the temple priest that water from the mouth of this beloved devotee carried greater purity than water from the sacred Ganga itself.

In northern regions, people commonly take a vessel of water and pour it over the Siva form. This simple act produces beneficial results and helps fulfill desires. Abhisheka performed on the night dedicated to Siva brings especially powerful effects. When abhisheka accompanies the recitation of sacred verses in someone's name who suffers from illness, that person often finds relief from their condition. Even seemingly incurable diseases respond to abhisheka. This practice bestows health, material prosperity, and progeny. Abhisheka on Mondays carries particular auspiciousness.

For bringing rain, perform abhisheka with pure water. For freedom from disease and for bearing children, use milk. Abhisheka with milk helps even those who have been unable to conceive. The practice also brings abundance of cattle. Using water mixed with sacred grass brings freedom from all diseases. Those desiring material wealth should perform abhisheka with clarified butter, honey, and sugarcane juice. Those seeking liberation should conduct abhisheka with sanctified waters.

The highest and most profound abhisheka occurs internally. Pour the waters of pure love upon the eternal lingam dwelling within the lotus of your heart. The external ritual with various substances serves to cultivate devotion and reverence for Siva, eventually leading to this internal abhisheka with abundant love flowing freely.

The Power of Sacred Hymns

Throughout history, devotees have pleased Siva through hymns of praise. The demon king Ravana propitiated this divine presence through songs. The celestial being Pushpadanta composed the celebrated Siva Mahimna Stotra, which devotees throughout India still sing today, and thereby obtained all powers and ultimate liberation. The glory of these sacred songs defies description.

Constant repetition of Siva hymns and divine names purifies the mind. These compositions fill consciousness with elevated and pure thoughts. Repeating the hymns strengthens positive mental patterns. Psychological principles teach that a person becomes what they consistently think about. The mind of someone who trains in thinking good and sacred thoughts develops a natural tendency toward such thinking. Their character transforms through continued positive thought. When the mind contemplates the divine image while singing hymns, the mental substance actually takes the form of that divine image. This impression, called samskara, remains in the mind. Through frequent repetition, these impressions gain strength, and a tendency or habit forms in the mind. One who entertains thoughts of divinity becomes transformed into the divinity through constant contemplation. Their inner disposition becomes purified and divinized. During the singing of hymns to Siva, the practitioner comes into harmony with this divine consciousness. The individual mind merges into the cosmic mind. The singer becomes one with Siva.

Everyone should sing the hymns of Siva and obtain grace and liberation, not in some distant future, but in this very moment. You can please Siva easily through sincere devotion.

The Sacred Five-Letter Mantra

The Panchakshara mantra consists of five syllables: Na-Mah-Si-Va-Ya. These five letters represent the five divine activities: creation, preservation, dissolution, concealment, and grace. They also correspond to the five elements and all creations formed through combinations of these elements.

Namah means prostration or bow. Sivaya Namah translates as prostration unto Siva. From the perspective of embodied existence, the individual soul serves as devotee to this divine presence. Namah represents the individual soul, while Siva represents the supreme soul. The syllable aya indicates the identity or unity between individual soul and supreme soul. Therefore, Sivaya Namah functions as a great statement similar to other declarations of non-dual philosophy, signifying the identity between the individual soul and the supreme soul.

Among seventy million mantras, Panchakshara stands supreme. In the Yajur Veda, which contains seven sections, the Rudra hymns occupy the center of the middle section. Among the thousand Rudra mantras, the Siva Panchakshara mantra shines at the very center.

The Yajur Veda forms the head of the cosmic being who embodies the Vedas. The Rudra section, positioned in the middle, represents the heart. Panchakshara serves as the eye. The syllables Si-va, located at the center of Na-mah-si-va-ya, form the pupil of that eye. Whoever practices repetition of this Panchakshara becomes freed from the cycle of birth and death and attains eternal bliss. The Vedas emphatically declare this truth. This Panchakshara forms the very body of the divine dancer. This mantra serves as the dwelling place of Siva.

The name of Siva forms the very soul of all mantras. Repetition of the sacred names and meditation upon them will free you from all negative patterns and lead you to eternal bliss and immortality.

The Cosmic Dance

Siva alone dances. This divine consciousness masters the art of dance and reigns as king of dancers. The dance once subdued the pride of Kali (another fierce divine aspect). The dissolution enacted by Siva unfolds not as a single act but as a series of movements, with different dance forms at each stage.

This dance serves the welfare of the world. Its purpose aims to free souls from the bonds of illusion, from the three fundamental impurities of egoism, karmic patterns, and maya. This divine force regenerates rather than destroys. Siva bestows auspiciousness and bliss. Devotees find this consciousness easier to please than other divine aspects. Grace flows quickly in response to even modest spiritual practice or simple recitation of the five sacred letters.

You can witness the dance of Siva in ocean waves rising and falling, in the oscillation of the mind, in movements of the senses and life force, in the rotation of planets and stars, in cosmic dissolution, in epidemics of disease, in massive floods and volcanic eruptions, in earthquakes and landslides, in lightning and thunder, in great fires and powerful storms.

The entire cosmic play and activity constitutes the dance of Siva. All movements within the universe form this dance. The divine dances upon primordial nature and energizes her. Mind, life force, and matter begin to dance. Then the universe of names and forms projects itself from undifferentiated matter. Energy and sound become differentiated.

During cosmic dissolution, primordial nature remains inert and motionless. The three fundamental qualities exist in perfect equilibrium. She cannot dance until Siva wills it. When the divine rises from profound silence and begins to dance, undifferentiated sound becomes differentiated through vibrations created by movements of the cosmic drum. Primordial sound comes into being. Undifferentiated energy likewise becomes differentiated. The equilibrium among the three qualities becomes disturbed. The qualities of harmony, activity, and inertia manifest distinctly. All spheres, atoms, and particles dance rhythmically and in orderly fashion. Atoms dance within molecules, and molecules dance in all bodies. Stars dance through time and space. Primordial nature also begins to dance around the divine as manifestation of divine glory. The cosmic life force begins operating on subtle matter. Various forms manifest. The cosmic mind also appears.

When the appropriate time arrives, Siva dissolves all names and forms through fire while dancing. Stillness returns once again.

The divine dancer of Chidambaram possesses four hands. The matted locks carry the Ganga and crescent moon. The right hand holds the drum. The raised left hand displays the mudra of protection to devotees, signifying the message: Do not fear, I shall protect you all. One left hand holds fire. The other right hand points downward toward the demon dwarf holding a cobra. The left foot rises in graceful posture.

The sound of the drum invites the individual soul to divine feet. It represents the primordial Om. All Sanskrit letters emerged from the play of the drum. Creation arises from the drum. The hand showing the protective mudra offers refuge. Fire brings dissolution. The raised foot indicates illusion. The hand pointing downward shows that divine feet serve as the sole refuge for individual souls.

The dance unfolds gently. If performed with full force, the entire earth would sink immediately. The eyes remain closed during the dance, because sparks from those eyes would consume the entire universe. The five divine activities of creation, preservation, dissolution, concealment, and grace constitute the dances of Siva.

Practices for Devotees

Devotees of Siva apply sacred ash to the forehead and body. They wear prayer beads made from rudraksha seeds. They worship the lingam with bilva leaves. They practice repetition of the Panchakshara mantra Om Namah Sivaya. They also meditate on this mantra. Each of these actions pleases Siva. Sacred ash carries special holiness, worn by Siva himself. Each bead of the rudraksha mala represents the third eye in the forehead of Siva. Bilva leaves belong to the five dwelling places of Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity.

Practitioners should perform mantra repetition and meditation particularly during the period just before sunset. The twilight period that occurs on the thirteenth day after a full moon or new moon carries special significance. Celestial beings visit Siva temples for worship during this time. Visiting temples during these periods allows you to honor these divine presences as well. Devoted practitioners observe complete fasting on these days.

Conduct special worship on Mondays and during these sacred twilight periods. These times and the great night of Siva hold particular sacredness. The great night dedicated to Siva falls on the thirteenth day of the dark fortnight of the month of Kumbha. Important features of this observance include strict fasting for twenty-four hours and maintaining wakefulness throughout the night. Every sincere devotee spends this night in deep meditation, keeps vigil, and observes the fast.

The Essential Teaching

Siva embodies divine love. Grace flows without boundaries. This consciousness serves as savior and inner teacher, the beloved of Uma (the divine feminine aspect). This presence represents truth, auspiciousness, goodness, beauty, and divine radiance. Siva manifests as the supreme light shining within your heart.

Meditate on the divine form. Listen to sacred stories. Repeat the mantra Namah Sivaya. Study sacred texts about Siva. Perform daily worship. Recognize this divine presence in all names and forms. Through sincere practice, you will receive the blessing of direct vision and experience of this eternal consciousness.

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