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Though yoga is not a religion, it does have an undeniably Hindu flavor. Some, though not all, of the Hindu deities have a presence in yoga, often as a representation of an idea and used in chanting and invocations. One of the most popular figures is Shiva, who is often interpreted in our Hollywood-influenced age as “The God of Destruction.”
Shiva is the last of the Hindu trinity, with Brahma (the creator) and Vishnu (the preserver) as the predecessors. Shiva is generally depicted as a long-haired blue man with a cobra around his neck. He can sometimes be wildly uncontrolled yet is tamed and restrained on other occasions: This balance between opposites makes Shiva an ideal representation of yoga. He is also known as Lord of the Dance, with a specific yoga pose “Nataraja Asana” (Nataraja is another name for Shiva) devoted to his prance, which is meant to symbolize his mastery of the motions and fluctuations of the universe.
Shiva brings closure so that Brahma can begin anew. Without Shiva, then, the cycle cannot continue. He is then perhaps better defined as a transformer than a destroyer, for he gets rid of the old and makes room for the new.
The oval-shaped stone called the Shiva Lingam is celebrated, worshiped and mediated upon today by Hindus throughout India. The stone is not carved, and found exactly in that suggestive shape that leads the uninformed into concluding that a culture of worshiping the male genitalia is an important aspect of Indian history. It does not help that, in the Sanskrit dictionary, one of the meanings given for the word ‘shivalingam’ is ‘phallus.’ Further perversions also lead the misguided to think that perhaps there was a primitive Hindu tribe where all females worshiped the male organ.
The Shiva Lingam ranges from a few inches to about fifteen feet (or about 5-6 meters) high. The source of this stone is along the banks of the Narmada River, which originates in central India and flows toward the west, finally spilling into the Arabian Sea. The stone is not a god and has nothing to do with ritualistic worship: It is a relic of the earth and an ancient artifact of an event that triggered human beings into consciousness. It is a reminder of the transition from dark to light, of the evolution from an ape to a man. Mediation on the Shiva Lingam can jump-start the inner source of awareness, where infinite knowledge is hidden and where the potential of further evolution is stored.
In yoga philosophy, human beings have three bodies, which are 1) the gross or material body (sthula sharira) 2) the subtle or astral body (sukshma sharira) and finally 3) the causal or Shiva body (karana sharira). Beyond the Shiva body there is the bodiless self, most commonly referred to as Atma, or the Absolute. Human evolution is then dependent on the transformation of the body from a rough shell to a divine essence.
If you want to escape from the mundane level of consciousness that is a common trait with most human beings, it is then useful to have a tool to stimulate the inner force. This inner force is Shiva, and the Shiva Lingam is a considerably useful symbol of the potential of human evolution. Om Shanti Om.
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