Pattanaik - Shiva: the destroyer

Shivas history goes back to the Vedas. In the Vedas, Indra, Surya, Agni, Vayu feature often; but theres not much mention of the gods we know today, like Shiva and Vishnu. However, Shiva finds mention as Rudra, his earlier name. There are many hymns to Rudra, like the Rudra stuti and the Rudra stotra, and its as though the kavi, poet, is writing about Rudra with fear. Its said that Shiva was probably worshipped even in the Indus Valley civilization because seals depicting Shiva have been found. The seals show a seated yogi with a trishul, or trident, in his hand. In the Vedas theres no word like Shiva or Shakti, but there is Rudra. Hes associated with vanaspati, jungles, animals, herbs, night. Rudra evokes fear, aweas though hes some distant god whose name cannot be uttered. Atreya Brahmins say you shouldnt take his name before a yagna, only afterwards. He seems to be a very powerful deity, but you dont find stories about him, except in the Puranas that came after Buddhism.

These stories talk a lot about Shivas wedding, which is curious. Thats because the Puranic era was preceded by the Buddhist period, which was overarchingly about vairagya, or asceticism. Puranic storiesthe Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Shiva Puranafocused on family stories where importance was given to grihastha, the householders, life. Basically, we see the characters from the Vedic period assume new domestic roles in Puranic stories. Theres a clear tension between the material life and the ascetic path.

After this, around 2000 years ago, Shivas temples began to be builtKailasa at Ellora, the Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, and the Ekampara temple in Odisha. Another 1000 years later even bigger Shiva temples came up, proving that hed become a popular deity. Thereafter the Shaiva math came into being, rivalling Vaishnava and Shakta maths. Like the IyerAiyengar rivalry in Tamil Nadu, Shaivas and Vaishnavas used to compete for supremacy throughout India. Shiva has gained this importance over the last 2000 years. The first reference to him appeared perhaps in the Indus Valley civilization where he found mention as a distant god in the Vedas. It was in the Puranas that he acquired the status we associate with him today. It is there that we find the macho image of him were familiar withash-smeared, draped in elephant or tiger skin, and with serpents coiled around him.

For this, you have to turn to Buddhist literature. The story goes that Siddhartha Gautam was a prince in the city of Kapilavastu, and he had a wife and a child. Although he had everything, he was unhappyhe feared disease, old age, death, and wanted freedom from suffering. He left his home, took sanyasa, did tapasya, intense meditation, and realized that kama, desire, is the root cause of suffering.

In the Shiva Purana, the story is the other way round. Shiva is a yogi, a sanyasi, living in the Himalayas. Devi goes to him and says you must marry. She brings him down from Kailasa and marries him. So the ascetic becomes a householder. The movements in the two stories are opposite, and both these forms are important.

Theres a tension here. Hes moving towards yoga, or renunciation, while Devi is trying to draw him towards bhoga, or partaking in the world. After the wedding, he is completely transformed. He starts playing the veena, so is named Veenapani; dances, hence the name Nataraja; or tells stories to his wife. In the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, Shiva narrates stories to Shakti. In the Tantra-shastra, Parvati poses a question to him, which he answers. So, he becomes a storyteller, a scholarearlier he was sombre, kept his eyes closed, but now he talks, discusses. Devi gets him to engage with the world. Shiva is the one who has withdrawn from the world, while Shankara participates in the world. These are the two forms that emerge in the Puranas.

Shiva does have different forms, but theyre of a different kind. Shiva comes to the samsara, the world, from vairagya, and Vishnu, while staying in the samsara, comes to Bhu-loka, where he experiences birth and death. The form that experiences this, like a mortal, is called an avatar, and his descent from Vaikuntha, his heavenly abode, is avataran, transformation.

Shivas stories dont have a connection with time, with birth or death. He is beyond this, so he has different roops. Theres his Bholenath roop in north Indialiterally, the innocent one, someone who does not understand the ways of the world. When Ravana comes and sings a song for him, Shiva is pleased and asks him what he wants. Ravana says, I want your wife to become my wife, and Bholenath agrees. He is so innocent that he doesnt even understand what a patni, a wife, means. Parvati realizes she has to handle the situation herself!

Another is the Bhairava roop, someone whos extremely short-tempered. At the smallest provocation, he gets angry and grows sharp claws, his eyes become bloodshot, and dogs and bhoots, ghosts, gather around him. From bhay, fear, comes bhairav, so basically he assumes a frightening, bhayanak roop.

Asutosh is another roop. Someone whos quick to lose his temper and quick to calm down. Hell get angry in no time, but if you ask for forgiveness, it will be granted immediately.

Theres Ardhanareshwara, who is half-woman. He loves his wife so much that he offers her half his body so that they may always be together.

Interestingly, some pictures depict Shiva as a vairagi but along with Shakti and their children, which shows him to be an ascetic and a householder both. Just as we have various moods, emotions, and we change according to the situation, God too changes and has many roops. Broadly, he is a yogi who is converted to a bhogi by Devi.

The Vedas were trying to convey something through the mantras and yagnas. They were followed by the Upanishads, which tried to extract the meaning of the Vedas; this resulted in Vedanta, or the end of the Vedas. In the Upanishads, the atma, or soul, acquires importance, and it is asked, What is the roop of atma? The atma is formless, so how does one worship it? This has been given the shape of a Shiva-linga, which is a form of the atma. The puzzle here is how does one turn the nirgun, the formless, into sagun, one with formthat is why the Shiva-linga is placed in Shiva temples.

Ganga is a river, that is asthir, continuously changing, moving, flowing. Shiva sits on a solid, immovable, unchanging mountain, which is sthir. These are two contrasting concepts. The still mountain is atma and the river is prakriti, nature, and the dialogue between atma and prakriti is the conversation between Shiva and Shakti.