Lingeshwara's Secret - 7 Secret of Shiva !

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Chapter 1 - Lingeshwara's Secret : Imagination makes us Human.

The Linga is the container of infinity, the form of the formless, the tangible that provokes insight into the tangible.

Shiva is the pure one, purified of all the forms. It means transcendent.

Shiva means the God who cannot be contained by space or time, God who has no form.

Shiva has been visualized as the 12 major Jyotir-lingas (or self illuminous), self-created lingas of India, mentioned in a hymn composed by Shankaracharya in the 18th century - Somanath in Prabhas Patan, Saurashtra, Gujarat; Mallikarjuna in Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh; Mahakaleshwar in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh; Omkareshwar in Omkareshwar, Madhya Pradesh; Kedarnath in Kedarnath, Uttarakhand; Bhimashankar in Bhimashankar, Maharashtra; Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh; Trimbakeshwar Shiva temple in Trimbakeshwar, Maharashtra; Vaidyanath in Deoghar, Jharkand; Rameswar in Rameswar, Tamil Nadu; Grishneshwar in Ellora, Maharashtra.

Shiva is the God, who breaks free from all forms, having found them limited, hence he is the destroyer who is worshipped as Linga. Shiva, who emerged from the limitless pillar of fuel-less fire, is therefore visualised sitting under the Pole Star, on a snow-caped mountain, in the shade of a banyan tree. Through this form, the idea of spiritual reality is communicated.

Lakulesh, one of the many names given to Shiva means the bearer of the staff or the erect manhood. The self-stirred phallus of Lakulesh is a physical expression of an idea known as "Sat-Chitta-Ananda", which means tranquility(ananda) that follows when thr mind(chitta) discovers the truth of nature abd if the human conditions (sat) by purging itself to all memories and prejudice.

When the mind withdraws from material reality, it does not depend on nature anymore. It does not need to be fed. It generates heat autonomously without fuel. This is "tapa", spiritual fire that does not need fuel. Tapa cleanses mind, purges all memories and prejudices so it experiences sat-chitta-ananda.

Lakulesh and his followers were Tapasvins - fire churning ascetics; they hold Prakriti is disdain and seek immortality.

Shiva is the greatest Tapasvin. He spends no heat engaging with the outside world. All the heat he generates remains contained within his body. Naturally, the world around Shiva, loses all the heat and becomes cold. His mountain becomes Himalaya, the abode of snow.

Shiva strings the seeds of the Rudraksha around his neck., instead of sowing them under the ground. Rudraksha-mala thus represents celibacy.

"If the formless can be given a form, then i am he. I am God. I am Shiva."

Only the human mind, blessed with imagination, can challenge the laws of nature, withdraw from it and even break free from it. This is Moksha.

Shiva-linga is thus the self-stirred phallus of the Tapasvin, the reverse flow of his semen, the burning of Tapa, the endless pillar of fire and the form of the formless divine. This is Stanu, the still pillar of consciousness, the fountainhead of imagination, around which the nature dances.

- excerpts from Devdutt Pattanaik's 7 Secret of Shiva.

Om Namah Shivay.