Unravelling the Divine!
In India ‘Mahashivratri’ was observed on 10th March this year. These days due to the invasion of social media and entertainment channels there was no dearth of greetings and informative and entertaining programs surrounding the festival. Visuals of people celebrating the festivals flooded our living rooms through our television sets. The significance of ‘Mahashivratri’ was also brought out through various media channels. Alluring, bewitching images of Lord Shiva were displayed and exchanged on various media platforms with equally fascinating and uplifting best wishes messages. Mantra chanting, temple rituals, and public display of faith as usual was seen and heard everywhere.
The symbolic images of our divine figures intrigue the human psyche throughout the world! Afterall, they carry such powerful intelligence and messages for the world.
My introduction to Lord Shiva goes back to the time when I was a little girl. A very impressive and to the point of being imposing, framed picture of Lord Shiva used to adorn the wall of my grandfather’s room. As soon as one entered the room, one just could not ignore that picture of Lord Shiva. As a little girl it was some time before I accepted that picture because of its formidable and striking appearance. Later slowly I got used to it and even begun to join my grandfather in chanting “Om Namah Shivay”.
As a young girl, I found myself simply following the rituals during the days of some festival and enjoying the stories told by my grandparents. On few occasions my mother used to join them. That used to be my connect to all the god figures. During those days people had time enough to share their age-old wisdom with young children so I was the recipient of that wisdom throughout my growing up years.
When I became a young woman, I realized that my grandfather, my father and later my father-in-law all had names of Lord Shiva! In our household there was no dearth of God figures and stories that our grandparents told, and this probably is one of the reasons that I possess such wild imagination about things and repertoire of words to interpret every story in my own way. There was so much of freedom I felt when thinking about our gods because all of them possessed such familiar human traits that it became so easy to relate to one or the other.
Like my grandma told me that Lord Shiva was “bholenath” means he was a simpleton, and he loved every living thing! But he could be devastating if aroused in a way that he does not approve of. Well, I wanted to be in good books of Lord Shiv all the time, I decided very early.
I used to observe the rituals performed by elders at home with fascination because my mother used to use various flowers and leaves and fruits and food items etc. to do her pooja. Only a pandit ji could tell the reasoning and meaning behind the rituals performed. I had many questions to ask and when I began to understand things more widely, I decided that when I will have time enough, I would like to find out more about the importance and significance of these rituals. From the very beginning I was interested in knowing, not just blindly believing and no one at home actually minded my asking so many questions.
The connection with Lord Shiv remained, when I found my college mates keeping ‘fast’ on Mondays to please Lord Shiv, so that they get good husbands!
Though I wondered about so many things, I decided that Lord Shiv indeed is a powerful God! He has reach everywhere, from my grandfather’s bedroom to my college mates’ prayers!
The positives that Lord Shiva carry far outweigh his supercilious and overbearing personality. None of our gods in fact force us into following them blindly, actually they present to us their symbolic, super colossal personalities and open the entire universe to explore for us! Because the infinite possibilities of this cosmos are the only ultimate truth. Rest is all figment of human imagination! The Lord Shiv also presents to us that possibility, I established.
I think today I am better equipped with knowledge about our symbolic god figures and their connotation and nuances to explain about them in a simple way to anyone who is interested to know about them, which I failed to do in the past.
According to my final understanding, Lord Shiv in fact inspires me to know and understand more and more about the human existence, human endeavor, human penchant for knowledge, the unfathomable cosmos, this life dance. He inspires me to continue to interpret everything presented to us by this universe in my own way! The confluence of Shiv and Shakti on the Mahashivratri day present to us the creation theory perhaps, where the uncontrolled energy of ‘Shakti’ found signification in the divine control of ‘Shiva’!
The picture of Lord Shiv hung on the wall of my grandfather’s room has kept my little girl curiosity still alive !