[Shivani Devi]

Namaste.

The word "Bhuteshvara" in transliteration, means "Lord of Ghosts".

When we think of the word "ghost", we associate it with the spirit or a soul of somebody who has died, and whose spiritual energies hang around a person or place to "haunt" it. This is the generally accepted view of a "ghost".

However, there is a different kind of ghost, called a "living ghost" and this is what is generally meant by the usage here.

"Living ghosts", even though they have a physical body, have no other physical presence in the world...they could come and go, and nobody else would even notice they had. They could try and get involved in a conversation and everybody will still continue to talk to other people, not acknowledging them whatsoever and others can never remember their name...they are a total "nonperson" and a "nobody" they could scrub an entire city block clean, and the council would take the credit for it, with everybody praising the council for doing a great job.

They make the perfect thieves, pickpockets and criminals, because any environment can fully camouflage them...this is a "living ghost"..
Living ghosts exist totally in a realm of their own, they have no way to communicate or associate and are often extremely sad and lonely because they can never get another living soul to acknowledge their existence.

Then, there are those who have been born physically deformed or mentally/intellectually handicapped or just somehow "different" to other people. The problem is, that all other people can see, IS that difference, that handicap and not the person underneath or behind the superficial deformity...they get ridiculed, spat on and mocked by society. People fear them...they laugh whenever they see these types of people, but it is not a laugh born of happiness, but of trying to conceal a deep fear of their own mortality. These people are "living ghosts" as well.

To all who society abuses, ignores, fears, cannot see because they are different, we are all the most dear and beloved of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva sees us, watches what we do when others cannot see it, and opens His arms wide, saying "Come unto ME, my beloved, and you shall find peace and that love which the world just cannot give".

Aum Bhuteshvaraya Namah
Aum Namah Shivaya