Theistic Philosophy and Religion
Shaiva is the worship of Shiva as the Supreme.
Shaiva is the religion that worships Lord Shiva. A very old religion in the Hindu family with vivid branches well integrated into the root, it becomes the feast, the oxygen and the life of many philosophers. Its mature philosophies, standing on strong bases, offer its followers the great path to the blissful Supreme called Shiva. Shaivites worship the Supreme as formless, as symbol, and through many forms — all leading to the ultimate Supreme which is without attributes. (adapted from Shaivam.org)
In 1979, the original French edition of Alain Daniélou’s Shiva and Dionysus appeared. It was subsequently translated into English and printed and reprinted in the United States in the 1980s and ’90s, ultimately under the title Gods of Love and Ecstasy (1992). In it, written after the author “spent more than 20 years in the traditional Hindu world,” Daniélou confesses that in India he had discovered “the most fundamental of religions.” By that he means the fundament, the bedrock, the oldest religion on which all later ones were founded.
Gradually, Daniélou became convinced that “all those things which seemed of value in later religions were only partial and deformed survivals … of that ancient wisdom … usually called the ‘primordial tradition’ [sanatana dharma or sanatan dharam] … the origins of which go back to the first ages of the world. … This religion, so often persecuted but always reborn, appears to me to still correspond to the deepest needs of man today.” (Daniélou, 7)
After exhaustive independent research that took me from one tradition to another in search of the original spring, I completely agree with Daniélou’s assessment — Shaiva religion represents the oldest and most fundamental perennial wisdom revealed to humankind, which has been practiced continuously in India since prehistory, probably first arising sometime between the 9th and 7th millennia B.C. (~8,000 to 6,000 B.C.).
Who Is Shiva?
Bhole, Shambhu, Maheshvara, Mahadev — the Innocent Lord, the Simple Lord, the Peacemaker, the Boon Granter — the Great God.
Shiva, the name of the Lord, is a mantra. It is part of the very holy mantra of Shaiva — the Holy Five Letters. Shaiva devotees chant the Holy Five Syllables, Namah Shivaya, for at least five minutes a day and keep chanting it whenever possible throughout the day. This great mantra does not have any restriction on when, where, or in what position to chant, or on who may chant it.
In Sanskrit, the word Shiva means auspicious, prosperous — Mangalam. Other names of Shiva that describe his qualities are Shambhu (Peacemaker), Maheshvara, Mahadev (Great God), Ashutosha (Easily Pleased) and Bholenath (Innocent or Simple Lord). He appears to the one who worships as graceful, blissful, and nurturing. Shiva’s auspicious and graceful forms and names are invoked by the worshiper for upliftment.
When one evolves in the worship of Lord Shiva to be a devotee, the worship is more out of love than fear of a supernatural power. When a devotee experiences the glorious qualities of the Lord, love blooms — and this love, knowledge and experience pave way for spiritual success, and not the fear. The devotee of Shiva can accomplish needs through prayer (kamya puja), and the Lord, as more than a mother, will take care of what is right for such devotees.
The Supreme Lord Shiva is said to remain in a blissful state enjoying Its own Self eternally, without any flaws, its perfection in its completeness. Nothing external is required to make the Self blissful. “OM NAMAH SHIVAYA!” Praises to the Supreme Guru, the Formless, Attributeless and Omniscient Shivam, which presents Itself in the form of the Guide to enlighten beings with the supreme knowledge toward Itself.
The Supreme Shiva who stands beyond immeasurable depth and height, beyond the limits of time, enacting the five deeds (panycha krityam) of Creation, Protection, Destruction, Concealing and Revealing, completely blissful in Itself, uplifting the one who worships, that Supreme God in Its glory is too immense to be described by anybody. It stands beyond the limitations of sex to be described as He, or She, or It. It is the Absolute which is not born of anything (Svabhava, Self-Born). It stands as the pillar of flame with innumerable aspects. (adapted from Shaivam.org)
Antiquity of the Religion
From Daniélou’s Shiva and Dionysus:
According to Indian sources and as confirmed by much archaeological data, it was during the 6th millennium B.C., during the Neolithic, that Shaiva was revealed or codified. … The first true Shaiva images are found at Çatal Höyük in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey, or Türkiye) and date from about 6,000 B.C.
Çatal Höyük itself, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, was occupied continuously for over 2,000 years starting in the Neolithic period, from about 7,400 to 5,200 B.C.
It was during this period, about 4,500 B.C., that the Minoans arrived in Crete, as well as in Anatolia and the islands of Cyprus, Malta and Santorini. Writes Paolo Santarcangeli in his Book of Labyrinths: “The disappearance of the Minoan civilization, the most ancient to have flourished in Europe, is one of the most appalling dramas in the history of Europe.”
The beginnings of Minoan civilization seem to stretch back to the middle of the 5th millennium B.C. and are therefore contemporary with predynastic Egypt. Modern research suggests the monumental temples of Gigantija in Malta date from the 4th millennium B.C. and were built sometime between 3,600 and 2,800 B.C., making them older than the pyramids at Giza. This Mediterranean civilization was thus contemporary with … the greatest period of Mohenjo Daro and the cities of the pre-Aryan Indus civilization, which flourished from about 2,500 to 1,700 B.C. and with which there is an evident relationship.
The greatest period of Minoan art in Crete stretches from about 2,800 to 1,800 B.C. … The Mediterranean population was totally annihilated by about 2,000 B.C. With the disappearance of Minoan civilization, and “until the flowering of the new [now classical] Greek civilization, the continent fell back into an agricultural life without a history.” (Santarcangeli)
We must understand that the same distance which separates the end of the original Minoan civilization from ancient Greece separates us, today, from the height of the Roman Empire. Later, the reappearance of Shaiva as Dionysism represented a return to an archaic and fundamental religion, kept alive underground despite repeated invasions and persecutions. Dionysism was, in fact, none other than the ancient Shaiva of the Indo-Mediterranean world, little by little reestablishing its place in an Aryanized world. This cult of Dionysos, which overturned and renewed the Greeks’ religious experience, had extremely deep roots in Hellenic soil.
Dionysos means perhaps “God of Nysa.” A prime candidate for the city of Nysa can be found in Cappadocia on the Anatolian plateau in central Turkey, a region that features snow-covered mountains, breathtaking valleys, limestone formations, rock spires, carved underground cities like Kaymakli and Derinkuyu, temples carved in living rock — all reminiscent of the Indus Valley civilization, and especially of the Chalukya culture of the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka, which reached its peak in the 6th to 12th centuries of the common era.
Daniélou also connects Nysa with a region further afield, placing it in that magical land between Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tibet. In that region are located the Swat Valley in Pakistan (called Odiyana or Uddiyana in ancient times); the Hindu Kush mountains; the modern Indian states of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh; and holy Mount Kailash, called Shiva’s abode, the pyramid-shaped mountain in the southwestern Himalayas that has never been climbed.
When the soldiers of Alexander the Great rushed to the Shaiva sanctuary of Nysa, near modern Peshawar in Pakistan, to embrace their brothers in Dionysos, it did not enter their minds that this may have been a different divinity, or another cult. (Daniélou, 30-39)
I found it somewhat astonishing to note that all of these places associated with Shiva worship — Çatal Höyük at 37°; the island of Crete at around 35°; the megalithic temple complex of Gigantija in Malta at 36°; the pre-Aryan city of Mohenjo Daro in the Indus at 27°; Cappadocia in central Turkey at around 38°, including the underground cities of Kaymakli and Derinkuyu at 38° and Nysa in Cappadocia at 38°; Nysa in Lycia at 38°; the Swat Valley in Pakistan at 38°; the states of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh at 33° to 34°; and holy Mount Kailash, found in the Himalayas between western Tibet, India and Nepal at 31° — are all between 27° and 38° of northern latitude.
This indicates to me that whatever culture practiced Shiva worship in the Near East, the Middle East, and in central and southern Asia as far as the Himalayas, in an unimaginably remote period from about 6,500 to 4,000 years ago, called the Primordial Tradition of revealed wisdom (sanatan dharam or sanatana dharma), spread along a definite band of latitude composed mainly of limestone deserts, snowy mountains and unspoiled freshwater valleys. Even more astonishingly, the tradition seems to have spread from west to east — possibly originating in the Mediterranean.
How is it possible that Shiva worship may have originated in or around the Mediterranean Sea? One explanation is that it could have been introduced into Europe and Asia by the surviving former inhabitants of the legendary city-state of Atlantis after it sank into the Atlantic Ocean. These Atlantean survivors may have been eager to spread their culture far and wide to ensure its continuity.
Daniélou has only this to say, quoting a snippet from Mircea Eliade’s History of Beliefs and Religious Ideas (1976 French ed.): “Megalithic complexes must have derived from a single center, very probably in the Eastern Mediterranean ….” (Daniélou, 59) Admittedly, the theory of an Atlantean origin of modern civilization isn’t fleshed out here and requires further investigation, but it caught my attention because of Graham Hancock’s recent Netflix series, Ancient Apocalypse, which is a harvest of pertinent information. I recommend it.
Shaiva Holy Books
Again from Daniélou:
The main texts describing the authentic rites, myths and practices of pre-Aryan Shaiva are found in the Puranas (histories or chronicles), Agamas (traditions) and Tantras (alchemy and magic rites). To these should be added the ancient Samkhya cosmology and texts on Yoga.
The Puranas are enormous texts summarizing oral traditions stretching back into the distant past, at the dawn of civilization. They form a veritable encyclopedia. Thirty-six Puranas exist, with six of the major ones belonging to the Shaiva tradition, the most important of which are the Shiva Purana and Linga Purana.
The Agamas explain the rules of the Shaiva sects according to traditions that have existed since time immemorial. Their content, if not their form, is considered as being more ancient than the Vedas. From the Shaiva point of view, they are revelation [revealed knowledge, divinely inspired].
The Tantras are works of an esoteric nature which deal with all ritual aspects, especially those of the Goddess. They describe the nature of the cosmos and its relationship to the subtle structures of man, an applied method based on the principles of Samkhya cosmology (macrocosmic science) on one hand, and Yoga (the science of the microcosm present in the human being) on the other. It can be said that this collection of rites and magical powers is based on the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm. (Daniélou, 42-44)
To that statement could be added that the same principle of correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm is found in other alchemical traditions, such as Hermeticism and its offshoots (“As above, so below.”) and Chinese Taoism, among others, and could even be said to be the foundational principle of alchemy.
Shaiva Morality
Shiva is everything that has been rejected by the moralities of domesticated humanity. Shiva is all the aspects of our development we think we have left behind, but which in reality we are only suppressing.
Another name of Shiva is Pashupati — variously translated as Lord of Animals, Lord of Cattle, and Lord of Wild Beasts — but generally understood to mean the Lord of all living creatures (e.g., in the Marathi language) or of all people (e.g., Kannada language). Hence all creatures are part of Pashupati’s flock and under his protection.
In the Shiva Purana (2.5.9): “Hence all the gods and Asuras became the animals of the lord. Shiva became the lord of animals (pashupati). He is the person who unties the nooses of the animals.” (Ibid.)
The name Pashupati embraces a triple concept: pashu, the animal, pasha, the snare, and pati, the master — or if you prefer, shepherd, flock and the shepherd’s hook (or tether). I think the point is that man is a domesticated creature, poor in spirit, who depends on the Grace of Lord Shiva to loosen his tether, to break his snare and to set him free. As a theistic philosophy and practice, divine grace is operative in the Shaiva family — the self-will “of the proud ascetics who seek to conquer heaven by their willpower” avails nothing. (Daniélou, 55)
Pasha, the bond, expresses the unity and interdependence of all forms of life. Pasha may be defined as natural law, which is divine law. All other moral law is only social convention, which can have no value on a universal level. All true morality must conform to the basic laws on which creation is founded. Social conventions established by human laws have nothing to do with religion. (Daniélou, 52)
According to Daniélou, Shaiva also takes an eminently reasonable view of life after death.
Ancient Shaiva believes only in a relative and temporary survival of the individual, and not in transmigration. [The idea of reincarnation, or a soul’s progress through multiple lives, originated with Jainism, survived in Buddhism, and made its way into orthodox Hinduism.]
Shaiva does not attach the same importance to the individual and believes in his survival only in a temporary and collective way. No one dreams of the survival of each flower, only of each species of flower. The individual is the end-product of his line of forefathers, and himself survives in his descendants. Therefore it is each man’s duty to father a son.
Human individuality is formed by a knot or point [Sanskrit bindu, dot] in which various elements are bound together [the conditions of birth and station, clan, upbringing etc.], assembled from the pool of matter, consciousness and individual intellect [made up of sense impressions, thoughts and personality], surrounding a fragment of the universal indivisible soul. This is like the space enclosed by an urn, circumscribed but not fundamentally different from universal space. At death, the vase breaks, the knot is untied, and the constituent elements return to the universal pool, to be used again in other beings. (Daniélou, 176-177)
The Legend of Shiva in the Forest
Again from Daniélou:
The Purana legends portray Shiva as a libidinous adolescent roaming naked in the forest, charming the wives of the proud ascetics who wish to conquer heaven by their will. Shiva humiliates the ascetics, seduces their wives, and scattering his seed here and there, makes precious stones and holy places appear on the earth [lingam].
“The Lord appeared as a man of low extraction. … He wandered around the hermitages like a beggar. Despite the dark color of his skin, his beauty was astounding. He laughed and sang and threw winks which seduced the women. He who had vanquished the god of love inspired desire by his beauty alone. … The most chaste women were attracted to him. (Linga Purana, I, chapters 29 and 31)
“At his smile, those women who were in front of their huts in the forest, or who dwelt high in the trees, left their tasks. They rent their clothes and let their hair fall loose. Some rolled on the ground. … They made wanton gestures at him, even in the presence of their husbands. The Lord said nothing to them, neither good nor bad. (Linga Purana, I, chapter 29)
“In the meantime, the great sages arrived. … Scandalized, they cried, ‘Who is this? Who is this?’ But the naked one gave them no reply. (Shiva Purana, Kothi Rudra Samhita, chapters 12 and 14)
“The priests and sages used indignant language, but the power of their virtue could not prevail against [Shiva], just as the brightness of the stars cannot prevail against the light of the sun. (Linga Purana, I, chapter 29)
“The sages cried, ‘This Shiva who carries a trident has a body of ill omen. He has no modesty. He has neither dwelling nor known ancestors. … His caste is unknown …. He rides on a bull and has no other conveyance. He lives in the company of evil spirits and goblins. … He has only evil spirits for a retinue. He has poison even in his neck.’”* (Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita, chapters 24 and 27)
The Tamil Kanda Puranam picks up the legend from there:
“Shiva, disguised as a beggar and singing hymns, walked in front of the dwellings of the hermits’ wives. The women came out, excited at seeing him. Beside themselves, they let themselves be stripped of their clothing and their bracelets slid from their arms. The beggar wandered from one house to another; the women followed him and lost their chastity. …
“The hermits, seeing their wives half-naked and without shame in the company of a beggar, were astonished. … Having lectured their wives, they sent them back to their dwellings. … Furious with Shiva, the hermits sought some way of killing him. So they offered up a great sacrifice.” (Tamil Kanda Puranam II, chapter 13)
To paraphrase a bit, out of the great sacrifice first came a furious tiger, but Shiva tore off its skin for a loincloth; then out of the fire came a trident, which Shiva took as his weapon; then snakes, which Shiva used to adorn his headdress; then a lord of demons appeared, but Shiva pacified the lord of demons with a wave of his hand and commanded the demon army to serve him; next a skull came, and the Lord placed it in his hair. (Here is an explanation of the origin of Shiva’s iconography and symbols.)
“The ascetics then offered a new sacrifice, out of which came a powerful spirit called Muyalakan (Epilepsy). They commanded the spirit and the fire to go and kill Shiva. The god seized the fire in his hand, threw the spirit on the ground and began dancing on its back. The whole universe trembled.
“When the dance ended, the hermits of the Taruka forest threw themselves at Shiva’s feet and sang his praises. He commanded them to practice the rites of his cult from then on but to continue their lives of austerity. After that, the Lord set out again for his snow-covered mountain,” his home on Mount Kailash. (Ibid.)
Wisdom of the Legend
The legend of Shiva seducing the sages’ wives in the forest reveals a profound wisdom. His appearance in the Taruka forest demonstrates that the divine can choose to manifest in specific form. Though it is beyond time and form, the timeless and unmanifest can choose to interact with its creation in time and form. If objects and living things are active and manifest in creation, why wouldn’t the divine also have the power to be so?
Shiva dancing on the back of the powerful Muyalakan demon also shows that creation was accomplished through vibration and sound. The idea of creation or destruction through sound and vibration is central to Hinduism in general, as seen in the magical flute of Krishna, symbolizing creative power, in the sacred syllable OM, the primal sound that generates the universe, and as an attribute of Shiva in specific form as the dancing Nataraja figure — literally, Lord of Dance.
Another lesson could be that heaven cannot be taken by force or conquered by willpower alone; the power to conquer heaven requires mastery over male as well as female energies. It isn’t enough to practice austerities or penances or to deny the body its needs in order to gain spiritual power; with his power over women, the singing and dancing Lord proves to be much more powerful than the sages; in the end, he makes the whole universe tremble with his dancing (implying that to move or even to destroy the whole universe is within the power of the Lord). Only in the face of Shiva’s absolute power do the sages finally relent, only when they fear for their own destruction.
It isn’t enough to treat women as a source of labor, putting them back to work when they stray from their tasks, and to deny their power over life and death. In the Shaiva and tantric traditions, Kali, the invincible female destructive principle, wields all the power in the universe; and the female principle Adi Shakti, literally First Power, is Shiva’s whole power to create, maintain and destroy. So we see that Shaiva tradition gives equal status to male and female principles, embracing rather than rejecting creation and the “material” world, in direct opposition to the later, moral religions of self-denial and mortification like Jainism, Buddhism and Christianity.
Shiva is always depicted as handsome and strong — never as a living corpse who wields “spiritual power” — and therefore also restores the proper place of the male principle. In fact, it could even be said that by denying or subjugating the natural female principle — by denying nature itself — man becomes nothing but a living corpse who places his faith in a life beyond death. Instead, why not enjoy and celebrate the life you have here and now? Because it is a sin to do so?
“According to the Shaiva concept, pleasure is an image of the divine state. … The ecstasy of sensual enjoyment (ananda) is a ‘sensation of the divine.’” (Daniélou, 57)
Return to the Primordial Tradition
The Shaiva theistic philosophy and worship of Shiva do not ask their adherents to stand divided against their own nature — to be moral, to be “good,” to be chaste, to be “pure.” Instead it recognizes and accepts a person’s whole nature, which is both kind and cruel, generous and mean, creative and destructive. All it asks of its devotees is that they recognize the primacy of Shiva as the supreme godhead, Maheshvara, and also as the unborn and unmanifest beyond time and form, and to remember to honor him — as Shambhu the Peacemaker, as Ashutosha the Easily Pleased, as the generous Boon Granter, and in all his forms. That’s pretty much all that is required.
Shaiva is not some modern innovation like other religions we could name, but one that has been with humanity through all of its history and still provides for “the deepest needs of man today.” In its view nothing is rejected, nothing excluded, the female isn’t demonized, matter and creation are not feared and reviled. All of creation is celebrated as a form of the divine, and creation is also holy.
We live in a world in which we must come to terms with the gods without cherishing illusions. … In order to have any value, the search for an understanding of the world and the purpose of life can accept no barriers or preconceptions and cannot ignore any aspect of beings or things.
The profound message of Shaiva is that a way is always open for man to return to his proper role of cooperating with the divine plan. We should be conscious of our responsibilities and share them with the gods who conceived the world as it is, not as we believe it should be.
The way of Shiva is the only way by which humanity can be saved. … There is no other true religion. (Daniélou, 9-10)
Ode to Mahadev
Shiva is our history, our legacy, our common human identity.
Shiva is the unborn, the One without a second, the foundation and destruction. Shiva is fire and water, earth and space, time and existence.
Shiva is the lightning, the summer wind, the cloud and the blade of grass. Shiva is the rain that renews life and the fire that preserves life in winter.
Shiva is the unforgiving wind and the mountain that withstands it. Shiva is the snow and ice, and the eagle circling the heights.
Shiva is the light that illuminates the universe and is also the universe itself, the light looking at itself and delighting in itself.
Shiva is joy, delight and bliss, full and overfull and spilling over. Shiva is the canvas and the objects. Shiva is the stage and all the actors. Shiva is.
_________
* A reference to the legend of the Churning of the Milky Ocean to bring up the amrita, the elixir of immortality, which at first churned up the all-destroying poison halahala that threatened to destroy all of creation. To save the triple world, Shiva alone drank the poison but kept it in his throat, which turned his throat blue. (Blue is considered the color of poison in Hinduism — hence the peacock is revered because it turns poison to beauty, while the cobra turns milk to venom, each according to its nature.) Hence Shiva became Neelkanth, the Blue Throated.
