As the holy night of Mahashivratri
advances, I feel lost in thoughts and more drawn towards the wonder- the wonder
that is my Almighty, the wonder that is Lord
Shiva.
Like in every Hindu
family, I have grown up hearing about the millions of deities that Hindus believe
in and worship. Nevertheless, I have been told to respect all the Gods so as not
to outrage any of them, fear them time to time just in case anyone of the Gods puts
you off in utter disdain and pray more and more till you forget how much of anything
is enough for your living! All these and yet the imperative questions etched in my
mind- what to believe and why? Answers were all vague.
A quarter of my
life has ended and the list of soul-searching questions has kept on lengthening but, to my utter delight, one answer has always stayed with me which is enough to
satiate them all. The last ounce of strength that holds me back after every
failure, the glimpse of smile that is brought back after every surge of tears,
the little ray of hope that twinkles in my eyes time to time, the inch of
will-power that drives me to do the mundane chores of life everyday- it is the
power from within that asks me to keep having faith, the power that He bestows
on me with every step I take in life.
He needs no
description from a petty blogger, but if you ask me, what stuns me is how He’s
described by millions. People say He’s Bholenath,
God of simplicity. He is simple, because
He is above all complexities. What deepens my wonder is His universality. He is
immense- depth of His being knows no bounds. He is supreme, God of all Gods- absolute, yet
unfathomed. People say Shiva stands
for power, the ‘Destroyer of evil’. To
me, Shiva is that silhouette of mystery
that propels me to think beyond what I see. It is as if all the ambiguities of my
life find solace in Him.
One can’t really describe this enormity but, you know, I cherish this
riddle, this wonderful inexplicability, the holy profoundness that can’t be
bounded by any answer, any knowledge, or any truth.
One can’t really describe this enormity but, you know, I cherish this riddle, this wonderful inexplicability, the holy profoundness that can’t be bounded by any answer, any knowledge, any truth.-best lines :)
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I will thank you for giving us the opportunity to read such a nice piece of thought. I was just simply spell bound when I was reading the blog. yeah, you are absolutely right. He needs no description.
ReplyDeleteIn this context, I just want to put some light on a very known fact. May be it can have your interest.
“Har Har Mahadev”. On the eve of the Maha Shivaratri we can hear this chant every now and then. But do we really know what this chant means??? I doubt a few people are too courageous to know. As a member of a Hindu family we have been made to believe that Shiva is the almighty, the symbol of the power, the destroyer of evil, the god of all gods. What if Shiva is not a god or what if he was a common man like us??? To find the answer of all these questions we have to think more deeply. Shiva is also known as ‘NILKANTHO’ because he takes all the bad thoughts out of a man, into his body and pours the good thoughts into the mankind. The little paradox lies here. The mankind is the blend of good and evil. When the evil part of the mankind becomes superior, then the destruction of human species come along with that. To protect the civilization from the destruction, the good thoughts have to conquer over the evil or simply we can say the mankind has to destroy their own evils. When that will happen a man is no less than a god. We have to be the ‘NILKANTHO’ to protect us from our own evil. Yes, Shiva is a common man like us or we can say that Shiva, the Mahadev, is in the heart of every single person in this world. When we utter the chant “Har Har Mahadev” we simply say ‘each person is Mahadev’. By chanting “ Har Har Mahadev” we just clean our mind and let the good thoughts spread over us to destroy our own evil.
very nice thought. many a time i have reflected on this...and yes I do believe He is in everyone of us and everyone of us belong to Him. thank you for such a valuable piece of comment :)
DeleteVery nice thoughts. Your thinking is influenced by Shiva’s trilogy. And I completely agree that Lord Shiva’s image is influenced by a common man. The fact is, all the Hindu deity’s image is influenced by some real characters. Lord Shiva’s character is the perfect blend between good and evil. He is simple, forgetful, down to earth and also in the same time destructive, angry. That’s why he is worshiped by most of the Hindus and is considered as Mahadev.
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ReplyDeleteWell written atrayee..Swami Vivekananda says that "Take some time out from talking,and meditate in silence".You have done a great balancing act.
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ReplyDeleteNice going atrayee.. keep it up... Finally came out from your emo poems :P
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