Shiva: the Adiguru of Yoga.
In the yogic culture, Shiva is not known as a God, but as the first Guru or the Adi Guru. He is the Adi Yogi or the first Yogi.
Mahashivratri is a festival that was chosen to honor Shiva, The Adi Guru, from whom Yoga originated. It also means a great night of lord Shiva & marks the convergence of Shiva & Shakti.
Forms of Shiva
Shiva has many forms through which his different aspects and
attributes are worshiped and brought into our lives.
· He is Nataraj, the great lord of the cosmic dance of ecstatic dissolution,who consumes the entire univers in the all-pervasive cosmic fire.
He is Dakshinamurti, the enlightened youth who sitting beneath a banyan tree teaches through
silence even the most senior of the sages.
· He is Chandrashekhar, who holds the crescent Moon on his head as an ornament and has the
power to control the mind.
·
He is Nilakantha, or the blue-throated deity who can transform poison into bliss.
·
He is Gangadhara, who holds the Ganga River on his head, allowing the cosmic waters to
stream into the Earth.
·
As Shankara, the giver of boons, he is auspicious, and promotes healing, blessings & abundance.
·
As Rudra, the fiery one, he is fierce, demanding purification, humility and self-abnegation.
Shiva as the supreme Yogi
Shiva as Yogeshvara or the Lord of Yoga is the ideal ascetic, monk, swami and sadhu. The worship
of Shiva pervades in the Yoga tradition from the most ancient to modern times.
Relative to specific Yoga practices, Shiva is the master of asana; particularly the seated pose that
is the most important of all the asanas. He is usually portrayed in either Siddhasana or Padmasana
(lotus pose) often surrounded by animals that symbolize the other asanas as well.
Shiva is also the great lord of Prana or the cosmic life energy. The mantras “So Hum”, is the natural
sound
of the breath, represent the voice of Shiva reverberating at the core of our being.
Pranayama also rise the power of the Cosmic Prana, which is another aspect of Shiva.
Shiva is the great guide to meditation, the supreme guru, teaching us to observe, contemplate
& not react. Shiva is not the deity of a mere intellectual meditation or any mere personal self-analysis; he is the deity of merging the mind back to its source in the infinite, giving up the personal mind
for the universal consciousness.
Shiva is also the supreme healer, bringing rest, peace and rejuvenation to body, mind and heart.
This occurs when we surrender to his power as holding a deeper love and bliss. In this regard, Shiv
is also the deity
of doctors, known as Vaidyanath or the Lord of all Ayurvedic physicians.
Interesting Scientific Facts on Shiva & his Dance:
Chanting Om resonate our inner pulse rate of 7.83 Hertz, the frequency at which DNA is replicate.
The OMMMMMMM vocal sound of OM mantra accelerates the production of Nitric oxide, the chemical
essential for control of blood and blood vessels in the human body.
Modern physics has revealed that every subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, it's a pulsating process of creation and destruction. The Nataraja depicts he dancing universe, he ceaseless flow of energy and scientist believes that an atomic particle energy dance is similar in pattern as to lord Shiva cosmic dance.
Start your Spritual journey on Shivratri
Maha Shivratri is supposed to be the best day to start your spiritual journey since this was the day
universe was created and preserved in its current form. Meditation on Maha Shivratri is said to be 100
times more powerful then meditating on normal days. On this night the planetary positions in the
northern hemisphere are such that there is a natural upsurge of energies. If one just stays awake and
keeps one's spine erect throughout the night, it naturally pushes a person towards his spiritual peak.
It’s time to celebrate the Adi
Guru & uncover the Shiva within Me.
