(August 1999)
Ajay Sathyanath
This first part in hinduism denotes Brahma, and Brahma is the creator of this world. Actually this world itself is seen as maya or an "illusion of reality". Brahma is the creator of maya.
This supreme God Head is called Brahman. (note not brahma). or
sometimes it is called ParaBrahman. Shaivaites call him ParaShiva, and
Vaishnavaites call him ParaVishnu or Narayana. But whether we call him
by whichever name, he alone takes the role of the creator, sustainer and
destroyer. Since it is one god head or one god, different groups would
like to claim that their's is the ultimate. In truth all of them are
right, and it makes no sense to squabble about it -- this is what the
Vedas and Upanishads say.
Since it is now clear that hinduism is monotheistic, and that there is
only one god. We come to the reasons of idol worship and then finally
"Why the LINGA".
Amazing really huh... I was stunned when i first saw it.
(there is a way to get these numbers, but that's outside our present
topic).
Anyways, coming back to our topic; symbolism is the key to hinduism.
Sometimes the attributes are overloaded, like overloading a function
in "C++" if you so desire. For eg: "Ganesha", a hindu deity though
seen and represented as a guardian of good and remover of obstacles
is sometimes overloaded with the qualities of the "Almighty" - viz.
Parabrahman, Narayana, ParaShiva or whoever else as you might like
to call. Why is this allowed and why is this done you might ask??
GodHead or God in Hinduism is like a hologram, to draw an analogy.
Every part removed from the hologram can still provide the entire
picture. It must be stressed here, though the same God takes many
roles and represents a subset of all the attributes of God, He is
still the same God and thus very much capable of having this universal
set of attributes!
But here is the reality. The sanskrit word Linga, means "Symbol" or
"Sign". And the Sanskrit word "Shiva" means absolute perfection or
purity, or absolutely auspicious/holy. The idol of shiva is among
the oldest idols in hinduism. Shiva (here reffered to as ParaShiva,
or Brahman, or the Supreme GodHead) is considered "arupam - roopam",
or "saaguna - nirgunam". That is, he is both formless and with form,
and he is with and without attributes. Since he is the maker, and destroyer
all rolled into one, and since it was required to denote him by something
or rather have a sign of him to worship him, or have a symbol of him
to worship him; A blunt mound of sand or stone is used. Since it reminds
people of nothing concrete, this was taken to be the symbol of Shiva.
In other words, the lingam of shiva or the shiva linga.
there is a line in sanskrit that goes like this:
"Ekam Satyam, Anyam Shunyam". That is the truth or Brahman (god head)
is one, but the expanse of the universe is infinite. philosophically
one (ie 1) is used to denote - one god, and zero (ie 0) is used
to denote - the expanse of his creation/universe. When one puts,
together a 1 and a 0 in stone, we get a shiva linga.
There is another symbolic story to shiva linga, To denote the infinity
of the supreme god. Once, Brahma and Vishnu set out to see for themselves
the start and the beginning of god, who appeared to them as an infinite
pillar of fire. Brahma took the form of a swan -hamsa, and vishnu took the
form of a wild boar - varaha. Both of them returned having not seen the end
or the beginning, and they then symbolised him as a pillar of stone for
all of mankind to worship (which is called the shiva linga).
Some claim that this could be a shiva linga, while others take offence
to it. There are however two schools of thought about this in Quran.
While one agrees to the story as said by Ibne-Kaseer, the other doesn't,
perhaps guided by their hate for Hindustan. But whatever be the case,
and whichever group be true and from wherever the Kaaba was brought,
both groups agree that the Kaaba is the sign of
god, that which Mohammad the prophet kissed and that which every pilgrim
to mecca kisses.
...So just like the kaaba, the shiva linga stands as a sign of god.
It might be interesting to note here, that in the ancient days, there
were travellers from Arabia to Hind to find and discover the country
and sciences. Thats how the westerners named numbers we use today
as arabic numerals, because Europe got the number system from Arabia;
while the arabs themselves called it as Al-Arqan Al-Hindu
(translated as "indian figures", and mathematics in arabic is called
as Hindi-Sat or the "art of Indians").
Note however, that this too is a way of interpreting things; and
the union with shakti denotes the creative power behind the cosmos.
Thus some Nepali and some indian drawings wrongly picturise these
unions. Though they are wrong, it is not that they are not right...!!!
They are right in a small way.
...Besides, for God, there is nothing evil. There is a saying in sanskrit that
"the poison of the cobra is not a poison for itself". All things good,
bad and ugly (!!), whether sorrow or happy, whether disgraceful or divine are
all the "illusions of reality", or God's creation.
Symbolism in Hinduism
Hinduism is a religion that has perfected symbolism. However, now we have
come to such an extent, in the modern understanding, that the fact is
easily lost and all that remains are the symbols....And yet, symbols
are useful to everyone to help r'ber and memorise things. Hinduism is
very complex indeed, one story or one verse/sloka would have several
meanings, each for use for various levels of the "user". For eg; the
sanskrit sloka
means:
Idols
By relating to an Idol of choice, we are able to connect that much
easier towards our quest of the "ultimate". The idol becomes a symbol
of our earnings and mental faculties and a representation of what
cannot be seen, touched or heard, but just experienced.
Since god is subliminal and since it is easier for common man to relate
to more "earthly" objects, the idols were formed as a symbol of god.
and since god is formless and since god can take any form and highlight
any attribute of the set of all attributes, we have different idols and
different names for the same god that highlights different attributes.
A Christian Reference
In fact, even in Christanity, the Biblical Character
viz. Brother Lawrence, practiced idol worship. He saw god in trees,
and flowers and used to spend time outside the church and in front of
trees and flowers, worshiping them and hence the Lord.
The Meaning of the Word Linga
Getting to the worship of the Linga. Lot of non-hindus and a lot of
hindus who don't know the real meanings behind his/her own religion, wrongly
misinterpret the Lingam-Yoni as the male and the female sex organ.
A Muslim Story
The following might be worth mentioning. Ibne-Kaseer, a renowned
commentator of Quran (Koran), in the 8th century Hijra, in his famous
commentary called Tafseer Ibne-Kaseer, has talked about the Kaaba
(the black stone, that muslims worship and which is encased in mecca).
This Kaaba was a symbol of God or sign of god and just a stone.
Hazrat Jibriel (A character from the Quran) had brought the Hajar-E-Aswad
(the present Kaaba) from Hind (In other words India). Hind in Arabic
refers to Hindustan or India.
Shiva and Shakti
Shiva (once again as ParaShiva or supreme GodHead) is known
as the maker and the destroyer, and is full of energy. He is both
the consciousness and the power of maya. The power of maya in hinduism
is called Shakti and the the supreme consciousness is called Shiva.
It is said that Shiva is inert without Shakti, and for shiva to sustain
his universe he needs shakti. It is this cosmic dance of Shiva and Shakti
that produces, matter, energy and everything according to hindu philosophy.
Prof Carl Sagan from NASA, USA in one of his books asserted that the
dance of shiva represents the big bang and the creation. In fact there is
a high energy laser in the Los Alamos Laboratory that is called Linga.
Due to this great potence of shiva to create and destroy, some
followers wrongly associate the shiva linga to be the phallic symbol.
Reference to Kundalini Yoga
There is one other meaning for Shiva and this comes from the subject
of Kundalini Yoga. This gives the reasons for his portrayal with
snakes etc..., there is a parallel in greek mythology too, it is called
the Caudecus, and in fact you will find its symbol in every Ambulance
and every red-cross vehicle all over the world. In Sanskrit it is reffered
to as the Ida, Pingala and Sushumna (but thats outside this topic).
God's many appearances
There is another sloka in sanskrit that hindus recite, and yet do not
take its meaning in its entirety. Krishna, in the Gita, says that He
(Krishna, or supreme GodHead) will appear in many forms, again and
again, whenever righteousness in a certain region or place falls.
This is why good and true hindus are asked to be tolerant towards
other religions. A true hindu, will thus revere all the prophets of
Judaica, Jesus of Christanity, Mohammad of Islam, Buddha, Guru Nanak,
and several others, because they are all to be seen as various
representations of one and the same.
Conclusion
Anyways, according to me, (my opinion, as opposed to what i have
said uptil now - which was not an opinion), none of this knowledge
is required, whats required is a consciousness and the courage to
stand for the truth. Be it relative truth or Supreme. Worship, comes
easy in a million forms, when ones actions and deeds and thoughts
are true. But then again, knowledge leads to wiser thoughts.
Hmmmmm.....
Hoping this was informative, and has helped you in anyway.
- Ajay Sathyanath