Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Celebrating Shiva from Lawrence Edwards
Dear Dorothy,
Shivaratri, the most blessed night for celebrating Shiva, the Auspicious One, is Friday, February 24th this year. I remember saptahs, 7 days and nights of continuously chanting Om Namah Shivaya, with Baba Muktananda in Ganeshpuri, India, culminating in Shivaratri. Thousands of devotees filled the ashram and the divine name permeated all times, all places, including every cell of your body. Such intoxication! Such nectar! Such ecstasy! The rapturous awareness of pure I-Consciousness, the boundless all-embracing Consciousness of the Infinite One - Shiva, dissolves the illusion of any sense of separation from the Divine.
May all who hear the name of Shiva, all who repeat the name of Shiva, know their unbreakable union with the Auspicious One! Om Namah Shivaya!
Shakti, the great Goddess, is inseparable from Shiva. One can't know Shiva without the grace of Shakti. All forms of Shiva, whether mantra, yantra, lingam, Nataraj, icons, or even the entire universe, all are created by Her. Those who dissolve all forms into the formless One come to know the imperturbable union of Shiva and Shakti.
(above from Lawrence Edwards, Kalidasa)
Amritanubhava
by Jnaneshwar Maharaj
I offer obeisance to [Shiva and Shakti],
The limitless primal parents of the universe.
They are not entirely the same,
Nor are they not the same.
We cannot say exactly what they are.
How sweet is their union!
The whole world is too small to contain them,
Yet they live happily in the smallest particle.
These two are the only ones
Who dwell in this home called the universe.
When the Master of the house sleeps,
The Mistress stays awake,
And performs the functions of both.
When He awakes, the whole house disappears,
And nothing at all is left.
Two lutes: one note.
Two flowers: one fragrance.
Two lamps: one light.
Two lips: one word.
Two eyes: one sight.
These two: one universe.
In unity there is little to behold;
So She, the mother of abundance,
Brought forth the world as play.
He takes the role of Witness
Out of love of watching Her.
But when Her appearance is withdrawn,
The role of Witness is abandoned as well.
Through Her,
He assumes the form of the universe;
Without Her,
He is left naked.
If night and day were to approach the Sun,
Both would disappear.
In the same way, their duality would vanish
If their essential Unity were seen.
In fact, the duality of Shiva and Shakti
Cannot exist in that primal unitive state
From which AUM emanates.
They are like a stream of knowledge
From which a knower cannot drink
Unless he gives up himself.
Is the sound of AUM divided into three
Simply because it contains three letters?
Or is the letter 'N' divided into three
because of the three lines by which it is formed?
So long as Unity is undisturbed,
And a graceful pleasure is thereby derived,
Why should not the water find delight
In the floral fragrance of its own rippled surface?
It is in this manner I bow
To the inseparable Shiva and Shakti.
A man returns to himself
When he awakens from sleep;
Likewise, I have perceived the God and Goddess
By waking from my ego.
When salt dissolves,
It becomes one with the ocean;
When my ego dissolved,
I became one with Shiva and Shakti.
Rendered into English by Sw. Abhayananda
(post received from the Anam Cara Newsletter, Laurence Edwards PHD, also known as Kalidasa. Although I am not an official member of any group or organization, I identify strongly with the lineage of Muktananda, which is, I believe that of Kashmiri Shivaism.)
Note: Jnaneshvari was a poet/sant (saint) in India in the 13th century. He wrote a commentary on The Bhavagad Gita (known as the Dnyaneshwari) when he was extremely young. This work is still highly respected for its profound interpretations. "The content of Dnyaneshwari reflects a detailed knowledge of kundalini, metaphysics and astrology. The commentary lays importance on God as energy. It emphasizes that although there may be many different living forms, they all breathe oxygen (even fishes under water and reptiles deep inside the earth) and have the same life force within them, which is a part of God, who is energy and intelligence. It states that people can use energy and intelligence to connect with the supreme and provides methodologies to achieve the same." (from Wikipedia)
