Friday, January 15, 2010

25. Does the worship of Lord Shiva is inauspicious?

[I was told that worshipping Lord Shiva is inauspicious because He is related to the destruction. Is it true?] The very meaning of the word Shiva is that He is always auspicious. It is stated that Lord Shiva is the first Guru who gives divine knowledge (Jnanam Maheshwaraat). The divine knowledge is said to be very auspicious in the Gita (Nahi Jnanena Sadrusam). He is indicating destruction of the world or the death of a person. One should always remember that this world will be destroyed and is not eternal. By this you must know that death is inevitable for the body and for the body relationships. The old person must be aware of the death that is going to come shortly and must become spiritually alert. Even the young man must think about untimely accidental death and that there is no guarantee of the old age. Thus if one remembers the death constantly, he will be spiritually active. The human being is not turned to spirituality because he thinks that he will live forever. He should constantly remind his mind about the death and thus should become spiritually active. Generally people think that death is inauspicious. But it is the most auspicious Guru that gives knowledge about the temporary existence of the body and makes the human being alert in the spiritual effort. In Mahabharata it is told that one should constantly remember death as if it walks by our side catching hold of our hair. Lord Shiva also appears inauspicious externally. But internally He is the embodiment of the divine knowledge and most auspicious. Lord Shiva represents the quality of Tamas. Any quality turned towards God is always good. Tamas gives rigid firmness in the spiritual path. Prahlada was firm due to Tamas quality only. Kannappa, a hunter who is the embodiment of Tamas attained salvation by donating eyes to Lord Shiva. Even Sattvam when turned towards world is bad. Dhritarashtra was very polite and was a devotee of Lord Krishna. He possesses Sattvam quality. But he never followed the word of Lord Krishna. All his Sattvam quality was diverted towards the world and he was very greedy. The Lord punished him. In Nivritti one has to cross the justice also by using Tamas. Even the Lord crosses the rules of justice to protect His real devotee due to the Tamas quality only. Lord Shiva protected Markandeya in this way. Datta appears as a drunkard and fond of prostitute due to Tamas only. Datta preaches that in Nivritti the devotee shall not leave the Lord even if the Lord harms him. This is like the drunkard, not leaving the harmful wine and the harmful prostitute. At that stage to have such firm desire on the Lord, Tamas is required. Dharmaraja was the embodiment of Sattvam quality. But he was not having firm faith on Lord Krishna. Therefore, even if Lord Krishna forced him to tell a lie he refused. This is due to lack of firmness in the faith and the firmness is always due to Tamas. Thus the importance of Shiva is very much in the spiritual line. Moreover the same Brahman is called Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva based on the association with Sattvam, Rajas and Tamas respectively. The same Lord is in three shirts of different colours. The Lord is not having any colour. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are only the three energetic bodies of the same Lord, which are like three separate coloured shirts. If you scold Shiva, you have scolded Brahma and Vishnu. The Veda says the same (Brahmacha Narayanah, Shivascha Narayanah). The greatest sin is to differentiate Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and to differentiate their corresponding incarnations i.e., Madhva, Ramanuja and Shankara.

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