Five acts/powers of Shiva and why they matter to us?

[jonesboy]

s1va
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Posted September 10, 2018
The five acts of Shiva can be observed in his cosmic dance 'Nataraja' posture.



1. Creation, or emanation (srishti) - Shiva is considered the creator of everything or from whom everything appeared in the Shaivite traditions.

"(srishti), is represented by His upper right hand holding the drum upon which He beats Paranada, the Primal Sound, from which issue forth the rhythms and cycles of creation."



2. Preservation (sthiti) - The sustenance of everything

" is represented by His lower right hand, held in the gesture of blessing, abhaya mudra, indicating "fear not." "



3. Destruction (samhara) - or dissolution or absorption of everything back into Shiva

"is symbolized by the fire in His upper left hand, held in ardha-chandra mudra, "half-moon gesture.""



4. Obscuring grace (tirodhana) - The most intriguing of all the acts that hides the truth from souls, thereby permitting the worldly

"is represented by His right foot upon the prostrate person, apasmarapurusha, who symbolizes the principle of ignorance, or anava."

(I read in another book, that it is Shiva's right left hand that is going across the chest thereby covering his heart, which results in the tiodhana or ignorance)



5. Revealing divine grace (anugraha) - grants the knowledge and severs the bonds resulting in realization

"is symbolized by Siva's raised left foot, and by His lower left hand, held in gajahasta or "elephant trunk" mudra, inviting approach.



Now, moving on to the part, what is special about these 5 acts, why does it matter to us what Shiva does?

"Pratyabhijna is, in its essence, a deep and systematic study of man as microcosm and the world he lives in as macrocosm. In it, there is a perfectly scientific analysis of all the human faculities, man's entire physical, mental and spiritual organisms and that of the One Objective Reality (Parama Shiva) into thirty six primary realitives indispensable for the constitution of the universe and processes of creation, etc. The system being broad-based, tackles all the problems of human interest and lays great stress on the spiritual values of life. It is thus a school of 'Spiritual Pragmatism'."

The above quote from the Shaivism.net might explain understand this. As per Abhinavagupta, we the jivas are the microcosm and Shiva is the macrocosm. If we are made in his image, essentially we are also doing these five acts ourselves in our activities. Not only do all of us have the capability for all of these 5 actions, we do engage in all of them either consciously or unconsciously. When we explore this consciously, we may eventually understand, or mystically be observed into the state of 'Shiva'.