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Originally Posted by SaturninePluto
That is very very interesting Shivani Devi. And please please do, when and if you have the time of course.
I have grown much respect for what I have learned of Hinduism while I have been here. I haven't learned I feel an awful much but by what I have read here from yourself and others, I feel truly much respect for the beliefs. I have read on Wiki a little when I have had time, wikipedia that is.
Honestly as well of all the Hindu Gods, which If I am not mistaken (?) please answer if you find time, are aspects of each other as well as their female counterparts? Ie Kali being an aspect of Shiva. I have much respect for Lord Shiva. I have always loved it, the concept, the creator destroyer God. I used to write poetry and I would create something a poem, and when I felt It did not hold my standards I would rip it up and destroy it. My mother did not understand this and when I wrote a poem about mother's day took offense when I ripped it up, saying I loved that poem! So very much. I did not feel myself it was good enough for my own standards, and I always attributed this to Shiva saying "You know Shiva would utterly understand me" 'Who is that, what are you talking about"? In retort. "Why the creator and destroyer God of course".
Personally, I do not feel people realize that there can be such beauty in destruction. Destroying my own work in aims to better it somehow, felt so entirely liberating for me. I view Shiva in a sense this way, a teacher of liberation.
Thank you for your response.
Always good to read your view.
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Thank you
too, Saturnine Pluto. Namaste.
In response to your question, all that we understand as being each Hindu God or Goddess, are only facets or aspects of the one, absolute Consciousness...and I personally think it was just way too difficult to attribute all that to
one being, and so they had to spread out 'God's personality' over 33 of them - well, the scholars
did narrow it down from 330,000 to their credit. ;)
In the case of Shiva, Shakti, Skanda and Ganesha...Shiva represents unlimited potential and inert will (Purusha), and the creating/destroying part is only attributed to him
through His manifested energies (Prakriti) which, of course, is also called Kali, Shakti or Durga.
The union of Shiva and Shakti in the macrocosm, is also represented in the microcosm, as star-crossed lovers, separated by the human notion of temporal duality and thus taking up positions at the opposite ends of the individual's spinal cord/column...with Kali/Shakti at the bottom end and Shiva at the top.
Now, when Shiva and Shakti reconcile into full-enlightenment (Samadhi) within the individual (which, by that stage, is no longer an 'individual') awareness, they join into half Shiva and half Shakti called Ardhanarishvara.
Through this total union of unlimited potential vs circumscribed force, the 'unstoppable energy' thus meets the 'immovable object' and they basically annihilate each other in the total act
of Love and this is why, we see Kali standing on top of Shiva...because, in all of Kali's wild, terrible glory, even
She has to obey the laws of the universe and cannot 'overstep the mark' in regards to her place
as Shiva's emanation to begin with.
Skanda and Ganesha are manifestations and expressions of a person's enlightened state, or where 'force meets will and they merge into each other' as represented by each triangle coming together to form a hexagram....and I mean, I could type about all of this
forever and still not even scratch the surface of it.
...but onto the story about how Ganesha got His elephant's head...and I typed this up in the Hindu forum about a month ago:
'It is also interesting to note that the two 'children' of Shiva and Parvati (Kali) weren't conceived in the 'usual' way...as a human child would be. We have already seen how Lord Murugan's (Sanat Kumara's) birth came about...well, I guess that Parvati thought; "If my husband can 'create a baby' without me, then let me try that".
So, before bathing one day, Mother Parvati took all the sandalwood paste, dirt, dust and scurf from her body and fashioned a poppet from it - then, She breathed life into the poppet and it became a young boy which Mother Parvati then put on 'guard duty' beside the stream she was nakedly bathing in.
Of course Lord Shiva didn't recognise Him as being the 'child of Parvati' (one would think He
would, being God and all) and so, a scuffle ensued as Lord Shiva tried to re-unite with His wife and in the ensuing battle, the poor child became decapitated.
Parvati arrived on the scene too late...She was totally infuriated with Shiva and was transforming into Kali to kill Shiva herself (or try) and so, to pacify Parvati, Lord Shiva sent the Trishula (Trident) on a mission to bring back the head of the first living creature it found...which as it was, happened to be a baby elephant and the head was affixed.
This was what Ganesha looked like before that happened:
I mean, Lord Shiva had practice at doing this (transplanting heads)....Prajapati Daksh received the head of a goat for his insolence, arrogance and total ignorance, but I digress.
Shiva does sorta get remorseful after He beheads and kills things...but unfortunately the human head is no longer usable (in most cases) and how He deals with the whole problem of inter-species neural connections and tissue rejection is totally beyond my level of human understanding at this current point. lol'
Anyway, thank you again so much, and for giving me this opportunity...and yeah, inside me it feels so totally amazingly awesome to be a Hindu.