The three forms of Lord Shiva

The Supreme Consciousness that fills the entire Universe and beyond can be said to exist in three modes namely Brahman, the unmanifested Suddha Brahman, beyond and pervading the Universe, Vishnu, the manifested energy mode in the Universe, and Shiva, as the Atman, the indweller of all the created beings.Though the Hindu religious sects may differentiate between the three and grade them as superior or inferior to their own conceptual form, all the three are basically one and the same entity. The first mode, Brahman is the unmanifested mode and when a small fraction of It is poised for creation it is often referred to as Brahma, the Hiranyagarbha, but again there is no basic difference between the two except that the latter is a minute fraction of, and enclosed within, the former. Each one of these three modes have been described in various ways in Hindu mythology.They also roughly correspond to the Holy Trinity of Christianity. H+ere we shall refer only to the third aspect, Shiva, who is described in Hindu scriptures in three forms, or idols, namely the Lingam, the celestial dancer Nataraja and the traditional form. All the three represent the Atman, the same Consciousness referred to above as existing in the three modes. The Atman, which is basically Consciousness, is as such formless and one of its assumed forms is that of man. First, let us see in detail this third conceptualized form of Shiva, as described in Hindu scriptures.
The garments worn by Shiva are of three types of skins, those of the elephant, the tiger, and the deer. The thick elephant skin represents thamoguna, the skin of the ferocious tiger represents the rajoguna and that of the timid deer, the satvaguna. All the three gunas are manifested in man. The many snakes worn by Shiva represent the many bad qualities present in man. However one of the snakes shown around the neck of Shiva, a cobra, is always found to have its hood open and ready to strike. It signifies the ego of man, the worst of all bad qualities in him. The hair on Shiva’s head is shown as matted and knotted, representing man’s view of worldly life, that it is full of twists and troubles. But this is not a correct view of life. That is why we sing in one of the Sai bhajans, ‘joot jada mein gangadhari’ implying that the matting of the hair in Shiva’s head is false. The crescent moon on His head represents man’s mind, which is prone to waxing and waning, jubilance and depression. The mind of man, gifted to him by the Consciousness, is a minute part of the cosmic mind, and hence is immortal.The moon has no light of its own. Its light is borrowed from the Sun, which is represented by Shiva’s third eye, which also represents the fire of wisdom. The Ganga on Shiva’s head signifies the life force in man. No life can thrive on the earth without water. The sacred river, according to mythology came down to earth as a result of the penance of Bhageeratha, who prayed to Lord Shiva, to bring back to life his retinue which had died. It is said that when the water of Ganga which came down, flowed over the dead, they were all restored to life.Ganga is a perennial river and signifies the immortal life force in the Cosmos. The three pronged spear on Shiva’s hand represents the three divisions of time - the past, present and future - which is applicable only to the solar planets like the earth, and actually is a construct of man’s mind. In contrast to this, the ever rotating wheel in the hand of Lord Vishnu - the energy mode of Consciousness in the universe – represents time without divisions. In the first mode, the suddha Brahman there is no manifest time or space and hence at that stage God is referred to as ‘Kalatheethan’- beyond time.While Shiva is equated with the Atman residing in all Jivatmas, the physical body of man represents the energy, of which the body is only a condensed form.
Often we see the left side of Lord Shiva’s body pictured as a female, the ‘Ardhanareeswara’. Modern science has shown that the left cerebral hemisphere of human brain functions in a mind-oriented logical mode, and considered as of masculine nature.The right side is more intuitive, consciousness-oriented, and hence considered as feminine in nature. As bundles of nerve fibres arising from the right side of the brain, go down the mid brain, they cross over to the left side and thus control the left side of the body, while those from the left cross over to the right and control the right side of the body. Hence the left side of the human body is more of a female nature, a fact so beautifully represented in the Ardhanareeswara form of Lord Shiva! In this form it is always the left side that is depicted as the female aspect, Parvathi, and the right side as the male aspect. So He is none other than the formless Atman residing inside us while the physical body of ours represents His manifested energy aspect
Nandhi, the bull, on which Shiva rides represents the body of all living beings, which are collectively referred to as Pasu. Hence, Shiva who, as the Atman rides on or resides in the Pasu, is referred to as Pasupathi, the Lord of the beings. As all energy is derived from the Consciousness, which is divine, the condensed forms of the former, the bodies, are also equally divine. That is why the Nandhi is also worshipped in the Shiva temples, usually once in a month. Yes, the body, His residence, also has to be given attention to, though not as much as to the Lord Himself! As we enter the temple we find Nandhi, lying and always facing the lord and as we go in beyond it, we are expected to leave our body consciousness behind. We also find a flat topped stone at the entrance itself, what is referred to as the balipeetam or the sacrificial stone, on which we are expected to sacrifice our ego before we go in! As we proceed inside, usually in most of the ancient temples one has to go through progressively narrowing doorsteps or arches along a passage which is like a cave darker than the outside. One has to walk through carefully to avoid tripping over steps and falling! This represents the arduous and concerted steps one has to take to go into oneself to find the Atman residing there in the cave of the heart! As you walk through this passage your attention is focussed on the idol of the Lord inside, illuminated by a burning lamp. In most of the temples this lamp, which is kept burning continuously, is referred to as “thoonda vilakku”. It represents the eternal light which burns inside us, namely that of the Atman. Suddenly you end up with the sanctum sanctorum where we are faced with the other form representing Lord Shiva, namely the Lingam. This careful attentive approach to the sanctum sanctorum is a symbolic representation of meditation which man has to undertake to achieve Atmic Consciousness.
Though the idol is shaped like a short cylindrical pillar, the real shape is said to be that of an egg, which represents the source of origin and the end of all the creation. The oval or elliptical shape besides signifying the ‘Brahmanda’ or the Cosmic egg, also resembles the zero, nothingness, by which term the Supreme Consciousness is often referred to in our scriptures, since it is ‘no thing’, meaning that it is not an object of perception.
The word lingam consists of two syllables, ‘Lin’ and ‘gam’. Bhagavan Sai says that this means linyate (-going) and gamyate (-coming) that is the creation that comes and goes endlessly from this source, that is the Atman or the Consciousness. The Lingam is said to consist of three parts: the lowest called Brahma peeta, the middle as Vishnu peeta and the uppermost as Shiva peeta, again to show that all the three modes are from the same Consciousness. The lingam representing Consciousness, rests on an anvil like stone which represents the material aspect of creation, which in turn is a gross manifestation of the energy aspect of Consciousness. In our tradition Consciousness is referred to as the male aspect and the energy mode as the female aspect of creation. That is how the three female deities, Saraswathi, Lakshmi and Parvathi were designated as the consorts, the functioning aspects of the the three modes of existence of Conscousness namely Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, respectively. The Westerners and the worldly oriented people who did not understand the significance of this symbolism wrongly interpreted the worship of the Lingam as phallus worship!
The lingam is adorned with three horizontal linear applications of Vibhuti or sacred ash. Ash is a final product of combustion and cannot undergo any further change, it is changeless. Hence it represents the Atman which is not subject to any change. The three lines represent the three modes of existence of Consciousness or Atman, namely Param the beyond, Iham the Universe, and Aham the created objects. When man wears the three lines of Vibhuti on his forehead, everytime he is expected to remind himself of the Atman, which is his true Self. Often he wears in the centre of the three lines a red dot of vermillion. This represents the fire of Wisdom, in which he is to burn his ignorance and aspire to achieve Atmic consciousness.
In many Shiva temples, a vessel with multiple holes at the bottom, is hung over the Lingam and this vessel is periodically filled with water, so that there is a constant flow of water on the Lingam. Hence Lord Siva is often referred to as ‘Abhishekapriya’ We had seen earlier that water represents the life force and is depicted as the Ganga on the head of Shiva. So this constant flow of water on the Lingam signifies the close association of the Atman with life in the beings. The traditional article used for the worship of Shiva is the Bhilva leaf which has three segments, representing the three gunas which the worshipper is to get rid of, by offering them to the Lord, before he can hope to be the recipient of Grace. Shiva or the Atman has no attributes of Gunas. Hence He, known as “Gunatheetha’, one beyond gunas, can be realized by man only after he sheds his own Gunas.
Now we shall consider the third figure representing Lord Shiva, the dancing form, named Nataraja, the King of Dance. We do not know when this form was conceived but it has such a bearing on modern subatomic physics, one often wonders how our ancients could have done it! It could have been only through intuitive knowledge derived from the Cosmic mind and intelligence, which they could contact by their spiritual sadhana. Everyone is familiar with this form: The face is very serene and shows the third eye on the forehead, the same representing Cosmic Wisdom. On either side of the head we see waves like lines flowing out, which can be taken as representing water, the life force, alluded to earlier. The right upper hand holds a drum called the ‘Damaru’ which depicts sound energy, which is conidered as related to creation and also represents space. The left upper hand shows fire, which denotes the power of destruction, an inevitable end of all created objects. At the level of the hip we can see the long strands of clothing floating in the wind The right leg is planted on a demon called ‘Muyalagan’, said to denote thamoguna, which He has mastered. It can be visualized as prithvi, solid matter in creation, and all solid matter has inertia.The left leg is raised in a characteristic dance pose and the left lower hand is gracefully pointed towards this foot, inviting us to surrender to Him. The right lower hand is shown in another typical dance posture called the ‘Abhaya Hastham’, the hand offering protection. The whole dance is occuring in ‘empty space’, which our anients knew, was not really empty but is filled with Consciousness or ‘Chit’. That is why the space or stage in/on which He is dancing is referred to as ‘Chitambalam’ (Chit + ambalam). Since the Consciousness is not only the stage on which He dances, but also fills the space all around the form, like a covering, it is also referred to as ‘Chidambaram’ (Chit+ ambaram). Our ancient texts say that the process of creation consists of five elements, and stages. The first was Akasa, followed by Wind, Fire, Water, and Prithvi or solid matter, appearing one after another in that order. If we do not understand the meaning of these names of elements correctly, inevitable questions will arise: How can water arise from fire and solid matter from water? While Akasa refers to space, Wind must be taken as refering to gases, Fire to intense heat, Water to liquid, and Prithvi to solid matter.Thus it wil be seen that the dancing figure not only represents the ever dancing energy pattern but also the five elements originating from the Consciousness.That this view of creation fits in with our present scientific knowledge will become clear as we proceed further with the discussion.
Incidentally, the original source of creation, the Supreme Consciousness was considered to be divine. Anything which is worthy of our adoration and worship is divine, and nothing can qualify more for this definition than the source of all creation. And our ancients rightly held that all the five elements (Pancha Bhutas) which originated from It are equally divine and worshipped them also in the form of lingams or images (Pancha Bhuta lingams) at five different places These five are: as Nataraja (Akasha) at Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu, as Kalahasteeswar (Wind) at Kalahasti in Andhra, as Arunachaleswar (Fire) at Thiruvannamalai, as Jambhukeswar (Water) at Thiruvanaikaval, and as Ekambareswar (Prithvi) at Kanchipuram, the last three also in Tamil Nadu.
Now let us see how all this can be correlated with what modern science, specifically sub-atomic physics, has revealed to us on this subject of creation. Now most of the scientists agree that Consciousness is the primordial source of creation. The same existed in the beginning as a mass of intensely compresed energy, referred to as ‘Atheetha Shakti’ by Bhagavan Baba, which at a point of time exploded (the Big Bang), with great sound and heat releasing all the energy contained therein. The scientists have now concluded that space is also a created entity and it continues to be created. They have also shown that this space is by no means empty but is filled with subatomic particles of energy, which suddenly appear in bundles from ‘no where’, dance for a minute fraction of a second and then disappear into ‘no where’! Now they agree that Consciousness must be the source as well as the end of these particles of energy. This is a continuous process which goes on endlessly, and it is this ‘dance’ of the particles of energy that has been conceived as Nataraja, the Cosmic Dancer, the dancing form of Shiva who is equated with Consciousness. The energy particles released at the time of the explosion vibrated at great frequencies and gaseous form of matter, mainly Hydrogen was formed. This in turn set up nuclear fusion reactions, releasing intense heat and light, and forming new gases and gaseous materials.These, as the temperature went down, condensed into liquid or molten substances, which in course of time solidified into gross matter. It will be obvious that these stages of formation of the Universe correspond to the five elements described above. This Cosmic Dance is not a one-time affair and it is a continuous process still going on in the Universe. Most of the stars we see in the sky are still, like our Sun, in gaseous state with nuclear reactions going on in them. Many may be having liquid centres and many of the planets orbiting these stars, like our earth may have hot liquid centres and cooled solid surfaces. The conjecture of the scientists is that even now new stars are being formed and many stars,along with their planets, if any, are dying or getting destroyed. Thus creation and destruction is a continuous process. Hence the view that God created the Universe in six days and on the seventh day He took rest is not acceptable. He is not sitting somewhere high in the sky and running the Universe but is very much residing in it as a part of it and activating and controlling it.