Dancing with Śiva

Author’s Introduction

Granthakāra Bhūmikā

ग्रन्थकार भूमिका

imageT IS NO ACCIDENT THAT YOU HAVE FOUND THIS BOOK AND THE TREASURES IT CONTAINS. IT’S ALL PART OF THE DIVINE DANCE OF DESTINY. THE TREASURE YOU HOLD IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND IS DIVINE KNOWLEDGE, KNOWLEDGE ABOUT YOU AND GOD, knowledge about how to live a spiritual life, knowledge about what Hindus teach and believe. All of this and more awaits you in the chapters that follow. Put this knowledge into practice, and one day you will hold Truth in the palm of your hand—just as simply.§

Dancing with Śiva! What an extraordinary expression of our closeness to God, our creative interplay with God. The Cosmic Dance describes the Hindu view of existence, from the first thunder of the drum in His right hand announcing the Beginning, to the final all-consuming flames in His left hand pronouncing the End, which but heralds a new Beginning. Thus, dancing with Śiva is everything we do, everything we think and say and feel, from our seeming birth to our so-called death. It is man and God forever engaged in sacred movement.§

The ancient sages chose the dance to depict God for good reason. Esoterically, movement is the most primal act of existence. Without this simple thing, there would be no universe, no us, no experience, nothing. Light is movement. Thought is movement. Atoms are movement. Life is movement. And, the Hindu holds, God is movement. Also, dance is the only creative act in which there is perfect oneness of the creator and his creation. Unlike a painting, a poem, an invention or any other artistic impulse, when the dance is over there is no product, no thing to save and enjoy. As with life, we may perceive the dance, never possess it. One cannot separate the dancer from dancing, just as one cannot separate God from the world or from ourselves. Of special meaning is the place where Śiva dances: in the chitsabhā, the hall of consciousness. In other words, it happens within each of us.§

The vast complexity of Śiva’s Cosmic Dance is traditionally represented in 108 poses. Over twenty centuries ago, Rishi Tirumular of the Nandinātha Sampradāya’s Kailāsa Paramparā praised God Śiva’s never-ending dance with loving eloquence: “In all worlds He is, the Holy Lord. In darkness He is, light He is. In sun He is, in moon He is. Everywhere He is. The Lord is in all creation. None knows His coming and going. He is distant. He is near. Multiple He is. One He is. Water, earth, sky, fire and wind, the spark within the body—all these He is. He is the walking jīva here below. Deathless He is.”§

God Śiva is among the most mysterious, complex, compassionate and profound conceptions of the one Supreme Being to be found in the religions of mankind. He is Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of all existence, the Cosmic Dancer who animates the universe from within. He is pure love, light, energy and consciousness. He is the timeless, formless and spaceless Absolute Reality, Paraśiva. Those who worship the great God Śiva are Śaivites, and their religion is called Śaivite Hinduism. Śaivism represents roughly half, perhaps somewhat more, of Hinduism’s one billion members. It shares far more common ground than differences with other Hindu denominations. Still, it is distinct. Unlike the second major Hindu faith, Vaishṇavism (which is strongly dualistic), Śaivism adds a meditative, yogic emphasis to a bhakti path. For Śaivites, God and soul are essentially one. Unlike Advaita Vedānta, Śaivism is strongly devotional and theistic, believing in a one true God who is Personal Lord and Creator. The term “monistic theism” defines the essential resolution of duality and nonduality which typifies Śaivism’s philosophical stance.§

Scholars tell us that Śaivite Hinduism is mankind’s oldest religion, the venerable Sanātana Dharma. They have traced its roots back 6-8,000 years and more to the advanced Indus Valley civilization. A better-preserved history of Śaivism lies in the ruins of Dholavira, in Gujarat state, where another Indian civilization of about the same antiquity was unearthed in 1998. Yet, sacred writings and legend tell us that there never was a time on the Earth when Śaivism did not exist. Ten of the eleven great religions existing today have a beginning in history, a birth date before which they did not exist. All other religions and faiths were founded by men. Not Śaivism. It had no beginning. It can have no end.§

Through history Śaivism has given rise to other faiths, such as Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism, as well as to a multitude of sects within Hinduism itself. This oldest of religions is also among the largest. One out of every six people on the Earth is a Hindu, and recent studies show that Hinduism is among the fastest-growing faiths on the planet.§

It is neither antiquity nor size which make Śaivism great. The real grandeur derives from a sweet tolerance for the views of others coupled with these: a practical culture, an emphasis on personal spiritual effort and experience, the perception that God is everywhere present—and therefore no aspect of life may be divided from religion—and a joyous devotion to the one Supreme God who all people worship and Śaivism knows as Śiva, “the Auspicious One,” and the knowledge that Truth lies within man himself.§

Each Śaivite is unique, yet all seek the same things in life: to be happy and secure, to be loved and appreciated, to be creative and useful. Śaivite Hinduism has an established culture which fulfills these essential human wants and helps us to understand the world and our place in it. To all devotees it gives guidance in the qualities of character which are so necessary in spiritual life—patience, compassion for others, broadmindedness, humility, self-confidence, industriousness and devotion.§

Śaivism centers around the home and the temple. Family life is very strong, and precious. Daily devotional services are conducted in the home shrine room. The massive and architecturally priceless temples—and a million other temples and shrines throughout the world—provide daily worship services and sacraments for life’s passages. Śaivite worship is more individual than congregational, each approaching God directly. Yet during holy days the temple precincts resound with the genial voices of devotees gathered to sing God Śiva’s praises.§

The Need for a Hindu Catechism§

It is imperative at this time in our history—when the world, our Earth, is on the brink of an inner and outer space age—that we continue to value and learn from ancient Hindu wisdom. Long, long ago, great sages of India unfolded these eternal truths from within themselves and recorded them as scripture to be sung out through the voices of their representatives today. So great was their insight. Truly, this eternal wisdom lives now and will live on into the next generation, the next and the next. Hear the famed prayer offered by ṛishis of yore: “Lead me from unreality to reality. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to immortality” (Śukla Yajur Veda, Bṛihadāraṇyaka Upanishad, 1.3.28).§

While other religions are precisely defined by explicit and often unyielding beliefs, Hinduism condones no such constraints. For the Hindu, intuition is far more important than intellect; experience supersedes dogma; and personal realization is held infinitely more precious than outer expressions or affiliations of faith. Philosopher S. Radhakrishnan said it well: “The mechanical faith which depends on authority and wishes to enjoy the consolations of religion without the labor of being religious is quite different from the religious faith which has its roots in experience.” Hindu religious philosophy is based on experience, on personal discovery and testing of things. It does not say, “Believe as others do or suffer.” Rather, it says, “Know thy Self, inquire and be free.” §

There are no heretics in Hinduism, for God is everywhere and in all things. In such an open laboratory, Hindu spirituality has grown over the millennia so diverse and rich that it defies definition. Even knowledgeable Hindus, after a lifetime of study, will hesitate to say that Hinduism is one thing and not another. Hinduism, more than any other religion, has encompassed the full spectrum of philosophic positions, and to this day it venerates living exponents of each. Thus it is that one teacher will praise devotion as the ultimate path, while another, spurning devotion, says liberation comes only upon the shattering of this universe’s illusory appearance. How then to understand Hinduism? From the Himalayan vaults, ten thousand streams of thought descend, their cool waters giving life to all below. These flow together, their convergences becoming broad tributaries. From these, two mighty rivers are born which have through history watered and made green the growth of Indian spirituality—one is Vedānta and the other Siddhānta. This contemporary catechism is the confluence of these two potent traditions into a single torrent, the inundation of the Sanātana Dharma in full, fierce flood and force.§

Indeed, the very idea of a Hindu catechism is, for many, unthinkable, a perilous and impertinent pursuit. Until now, no one has attempted such a complete overview, making this a rare, and remarkable, book. One might even say an inevitable one. If, therefore, in undertaking the impossible we have overlooked any lineage, neglected any tradition or vital issue, please call to mind that it is human to err and only God is perfect, and find room in your heart to overlook any oversight.§

A simple warning is due. This collection of customs and beliefs is not a detached, scholastic analysis of Hinduism, but a view from the inside, a view of the religion as Hindus themselves would wish their tradition honored and explained to others. Nor is this yet another dogma added to the mountains of doctrines and decrees which have crushed the human spirit throughout history. Every instinct in Hinduism rebels against the doctrine which is oppressive or narrow-minded. Every instinct in Hinduism rejoices in tolerance and in acknowledgement of the many paths, even those that seem to contradict its own. When you believe that God is everywhere, in all there is, wherever it is, it becomes impossible to hate or injure or seek to aggressively convert others. That is the spirit of this book. It is a transcript of the life lived by hundreds of millions of people, one out of six of the human family. Like Hinduism itself, this contemporary catechism is an ongoing revelation—a dance more than a doctrine.§

Hinduism Is an Eastern Religion§

To place Hinduism in the context of world thought, it is first important to note that it is a religion of the East. This is a vital fact, for there is a vast difference between the way seekers in the East and the West have traditionally viewed the ultimate questions: “Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?” The East has tended to be unitive, idealistic and introspective. The West has tended to be dualistic, materialistic and extroverted. Whereas personal inner experience is the crux of religion from the Eastern view, belief and faith are valued most highly in the West. While Eastern religions are accommodating of other views, believing that all paths lead ultimately to God, Western religions tend to be dogmatic, stressing theirs as the one true God and the one true religion. §

The Hindu View of Life§

The soul, in its intelligence, searches for its Self, slowly ascending the path that leads to enlightenment and liberation. It is an arduous, delightful journey through the cycles of birth, death and rebirth culminating in Self Realization, the direct and personal spiritual experience of God, of the Self, of Truth. This alone among all things in the cosmos can bring freedom from the bondages of ignorance and desire. This is the highest realization. There is none greater. Hindus believe that all men and women are on this path and that all will ultimately reach its summit. It is a glorious and encouraging concept—that every single soul will reach Truth, moksha, none left to suffer forever for human frailties and faults.§

Hinduism is our planet’s original and oldest living religion, with no single founder. For as long as man has lived and roamed across Earth’s land and water masses, breathed its air and worshiped in awe its fire, the Sanātana Dharma has been a guide of righteous life for evolving souls. §