Siva Mahadeva – The Great God (An Exposition of the Symbolism of Siva): A Rare Book

$153
Item Code: NAB951
Author: Vasudeva S. Agrawala
Publisher: Prithivi Prakashan, Varanasi
Edition: 1984
Pages: 94 (Illustrated In B/W)
Cover: Hardcover
Other Details 14.0 Inch X 10.0Inch
Weight 1.16 kg
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Book Description
From the Jacket

Siva Mahadeva has been worshipped for thousands of years as the Great God of India. His cult extended from the homeland of the Sakas in Central Asia to Kenya Kumari or Cape Comorin on the sea-shore. There are numerous myths and legends associated with him of which the meaning has been explained in the present work by Dr. V. S. Agrawala. He is the Lord of Yogins and the foremost Teacher of Yoga. He expounds all the mystic doctrines and the occult religious cults of Tantras, Agamas and Samhitas. His great exploits are the vanquishing of the Andhakasura or the Demon of Darkness and Tripurasura. the Demon of the Three Cities of Gold, Silver and Copper. He is also the controller of the Ten—headed King of Lanka named Ravana who cast a challenge to all gods and men.

The approach of the author in this book is neither historical nor anthropological, nor archaeological; by choice he has probed into the inner meaning of Siva Mahadeva, identified in the Vedas as the immortal God, Who has entered the mortal beings, Who is the same as Agni or the mysterious Vital Fire manifest in matter or the five gross material elements, Who as Arch-Yogin consumed the God of Love, Kamadeva, and re-created him in the subconscious world of the human mind and the conscious spheres of the human body or the central nervous system. The author has given in the present work an insight into the mysteries of Saiva philosophy as limited not to cosmic lucubration but Yoga and spiritual Sadhana for the control of the Pranic energy. It is this aspect of the symbolism of Siva which received the greatest emphasis from the Vedic times and in the Puranas and Saiva Agamas.

A discussion of the symbolism of the myths is rein- forced by 32 half-tone plates and several line-illustrations in the text from Indian sculpture ranging over a period of four thousand years. A book of this nature on the mystery of God Siva has been written for the first time by a scholar well versed in the Vedic and Puranic traditions of India.

It is verily a contribution to the understanding of the world religion.

Preface

Siva Mahadeva has been worshipped for thousands or years as the Great God of India. His cult extended fro m the homeland of the Sakas in Central Asia to Kanya Kumari or Cape Comorin on the sea- shore. There are numerous myths and legends associated with him. He was conceived as the God~ of-the-Mountain married to the Daughter-of—the-Mountain. He is the Lord of Yogins and the fore- most teacher of Yoga. He expounds all the mystic doctrines and the occult religious cults of Tantras, Agamas and Samhitas. His great exploits are the vanquishing of the Andhakasura or the Demon of Darkness, and Tripurasura, the Demon of the Three Cities of Gold, Silver and Copper. He is also the controller of the Ten—Headed King of Lanka named Ravana who cast a challenge to all gods and men. Our approach in this book is neither historical nor anthropological, nor archaeological; by choice we have long been thinking to probe into the inner meaning of Siva Mahadeva, identified in the Vedas as the Immortal God, Who has entered the mortal beings, Who is the same as Agni or the mysterious Vital Fire manifest in matter or the five gross material elements, Who as Arch—Yogi consumed the God of Love, Kamadeva and re-created him in the subconscious world of the human mind and the conscious spheres of the human body or the central nervous system. It has been a matter of extreme happiness for us to gain an insight into the mysteries of Saiva philosophy as limited not to cosmic lucubration but Yoga and spiritual Sadhana for the control of the Pranic energy. It is this aspect of the symbolism of Siva which received the greatest emphasis from the Vedic times and in the Puranas and Saiva Agamas The great Kailasa is the symbol of the highest mind on which god Siva has his eternal abode as the Universal Divine Principle wrapped in samadhi or mental illumination where Universal Consciousness throws open its inmost sheaths for the vision of man; The working and powers of the cortex or higher brain are still a mystery to modern science. The ancient Yoga Vidya has explained them in an or- thodox symbolism or terminology which deserves to be studied and interpreted for the modern man who wishes to understand the fully chartered map of his personality as expressed on the level of mind, vital airs and material elements. These three' are the basic elements described as the Three cities of Gold, Silver and Copper, and symbolised as the demon Tripura who could be pierced by a single shaft released from the bow of Siva which is none other than the central nervous system, named as Sumeru or Pinaka that is the Golden Rod or Axis of the human body.

In this symbolism Kundalini or the metabolic energy symbolised as Parvati is destined to play an important role and that was made the subject of Yogic and Agamic descriptions of the most pleasing kind. The vital energy of Prana is the fiery principle of metabolism or basal vitality in which all the Yogins of the east and the west have believed from the ancient most times. She was conceived as the Serpent Power which lies coiled in the lowest caves or chambers of the human body but when properly quickened unfolds her vibrating and buoyant hoods in upward sweeps and lighting up the five plexi or centres within the spinal cord into multi—coloured flames ultimately enters the brain through the magnum farmer: called Krauncha Dvara by taking a crooked bend. Its entry into the three regions of the lower, middle and higher minds is a celestial event occasioning her Wedding with Lord Siva. Its beatitude and blissful chain—action is said to be beyond the region of words. just as human wedding releases the highest ecstasies of the flesh, similarly the wedding of_Kug1q’alini with Siva in the snowy atmosphere of Kailasa or the Higher Mind is the great symbol of the Universal Bliss attainable by the individual soul. In mythology these regions of the hypothalamus and the cortex are conceived as the snowy atmosphere of Kailasa where the Voice of Silence or the Eternal Speech rests in layers. upon layers with infinite meanings which the yogins decode as Knowledge by means of Vedic symbols or images.

The myth of Daksha or Sacrifice from which Siva and Sari were eliminated is typical of Indian thought. This was a lower kind of Yajna carried on in the human body through sensuous pleasures in which the higher mind is pulled down by an uncontrolled ego. He was baptised by the terrible energy of Siva. His egoistic head was decapitated and replaced by the head of a goat which was the Vedic symbol of the unborn universal, Prajapati, called Aja. With the restoration of the normal link between the individual and the universal, human personality develops in an integrated form.

The foundation of the physical and psychical or vital energy is the Seed and therefore the highest emphasis is laid on Brahmacharya or the purity of the physical, vital and psychical sheaths in each body represented as the Urdhvaretas aspect of Siva even though he has accommodated Parvati or the Female Energy as one half of his total aspect.

The half—male and the half-female aspects of Siva symbolise the two Universal Parents also named as the Father and the Mother or Heaven and Earth throughout Indian literature and also other great religions of the world. In ancient Egypt and Greece these definitions recur with truthful sobriety. In/actual cult most beautiful prayers were sung as homage to the joint form the Male and the Female (Nara—Narimaya- vapuh) and it appears that the symphonies of Nature are demonstrating this truth in every flower or life-cell.

The Eve faces of Siva described mythically as Pancha-Brahma are the five material elements constituting the physical, vital and psychical man. This was the basis of the triple structure underlying Vedic cosmogony and also the cosmology of the three Lokas by reckoning the material elements as five and the vital airs as two, this was worked into a scheme of the eight forms of Siva, Ashtamurtis. The material manifestation of life in matter depends entirely on the integrated constitution of these triple aspects or energies. These were the eight Vasus of the Vedas, the eight Murtis of Siva in the Puranas or the eight handfuls of flowers prescribed in the religious cult of Siva. The GEM mentions them as the eightfold forms of flower Nature (ashtadha apara prakriti), the physical body being its lower base and the vital airs and the mind its two super—imposed summits. The more we think of the mystery of Siva and his mythology the greater become the orbits of our understanding their meaning. This study presents a session of the most intense delight which Indian religion, scriptures and Sadhana centring round Yoga can present to the modern mind.

I had begun to receive these intimations in 1927-28 of which the first draft I put in the Hindi language in my Studies an the Meghaduta which I regarded as Kalid5.sa’s homage to the spiritual Yoga of Siva. It was in 1961 that 1 took a decision to put these ideas into English language. In 1963 it so happened that Dr. Grace E. Cairns, teacher of Oriental philosophy in the University of Florida, U.S.A., came to study at the Banaras Hindu University and began to attend my Seminars on the Symbolism of the Vedas and the Puranas. I mentioned to her my idea of a book on Siva which she very much appreciated and offered her full cooperation to see the book taking a physical form. I can never forget her enthusiastic co-operation towards the processing of the book. Thereafter my friend and philanthropist, Shri Gopikrishna Kanoria of Calcutta, generously made arrangements for the printing of the book. My son Shri Prithvi Kumar undertook upon himself all the details of preparing the press copy with diacritical signs, reading of proofs and the selection and arrangement of the plates. This involved him in very onerous task to which I owe an appreciative witness offering my profuse blessings for his bright future and happiness. I am also thankful to Shri Shiv Kumar, M.A., for several of the line-drawings incorporated as text illustrations. The Chapter on Siva drinking the poison (XIV) fulfils a query from Maharaja Karan Singhji of Jammu and Kashmir to whom I am grateful for his interest in the book.

The idea of dedicating this volume at the Feet of Lord Visvanatha of Kasi was given to me by Frithvi Kumar and it filled my heart with great joy to accept it in token of my grateful homage to Bhagavan Visvanatha of Varanasi where I have spent the last fifteen years of my life as teacher in the Banaras Hindu University. I have now made Varanasi my spiritual home establishing the Vedaranyaka Ashrama and the Veda Academy on the banks of the Ganges in a secluded and restful place. 'These intimations first sprang in my mind in this holy city of Varanasi and matured during my stay here and therefore their dedication to Bhagavan Visvanatha is matter of particular joy to me. Finally I remember that Rudra—Siva is identical with the Vedic God of Fire which I have held in adoration during many years of my Vedic study: Agnirvai Rudrah: Agnirvai Rudrah.

Perhaps a personal fact holding good for the period when this book was written and printed may be excused if I make al reference to my extreme illness through which the meditation on the Mrityumjaya Mantra of Siva was carried to a condition of restored health. In these days of distress and darkness my wife, Smt. Vidyavati Devi stood by me as a solid rock May the Grace of Bhagavan Siva be on her.

Vasudeva S. Agrawala.

Contents

Preface v-vi
Chapter I Meaning of Mahadeva 1-4
Chapter II Deva and Bhuta 4-8
Chapter III Rudra and Rodasi 8-10
Siva and Daksha 10-12
Chapter V Kamantakamurti 13-14
Chapter VI The Bull (Nandi) 14-16
Chapter VII Nature of Seed 16-17
Chapter VIII Three-eyed God (Tryambaka) 17-18
Chapter IX Panhabrahma 18-20
Chapter X Three Mothers 21-23
Chapter XI Ashtamurti Siva (Great God with Eight Forms) 23-27
Chapter XII God’s Grace to Ten-Headed Ravana 27-29
Chapter XIII Eleven Rudras (Ekadasa Rudra) 29-33
Chapter XIV Drinking of Poison 34-35
Chapter XV Siva as Gangadhara 35-38
Chapter XVI Bhasma-dharana (Smearing of Ashes) 38-40
Chapter XVII Digambara or Great Nude God 40-42
Chapter XVIII Jyotirlinga (Pillar of Light) 42-45
Chapter XIX Rudra as Pasupati (Lord of Animals) 45-47
Chapter XX Ardhanarisvara 47-49
Chapter XXI Hari-Hara Murti (or Composite Form of Vishnu and Siva) 49-50
Chapter XXII Sthanu and Pramatha 51-52
Chapter XXIII Meaning of Ganapati 52-54
Chapter XXIV Mountain-Chariot of Rudra-Siva 54-55
Notes 58-59
Description of Plates 60-63
Plates I-XXXII 64
Index 65-66
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