16 Feb 2007
The message from Lord Shiva can be understood from the lives of the two divine incarnations of Lord Shiva, which are Anjaneya [Hanuman] and Adi Shankara. The life of the human incarnation is always the message of God. Anjenaya did personal service of the Lord in human form and Adi Shankara did the social service through the propagation of divine knowledge. In fact, social service is also the personal service of the Lord since this entire world is His own family as He is the Divine Father of all the souls (Aham Bija Pradah Pita—Gita). The family of the Lord like Sita, Lakshmana etc., is nothing but the inner most circle of the family of the God and it consists of liberated souls. Hence, service in both the ways is the personal service of the Lord. Therefore, the service to the Lord should be done according to the requirement and will of the Lord. In whatever manner the Lord is pleased, that should be the path of your service because the ultimate aim of the service is only to please the Lord. You can become near to the Lord by doing the service that you can possibly do, but from the circle of the near devotees, one becomes dear to the Lord by doing the service desired by the Lord.
Lord Brahma represents the divine knowledge, with the Vedas in His hand. Lord Vishnu, full of ornaments, represents the attraction to the Lord, which is the devotion. Lord Shiva, full of detachment represents the final stage of sacrifice through service. Thus, knowledge, devotion and service are the three subsequent steps as established by Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva in the sequential order. Rukmini heard about Lord Krishna from Narada and that is the first stage, which is knowledge about God. Then she was attracted to Him, which is the second stage of love or devotion. By devotion she obtained the Lord as her husband. In the third and final stage, she served the Lord by pressing His divine feet constantly as the incarnation of Shri Mahalakshmi [Mahalakshmi is depicted as massaging the Lord’s feet]. In fact, service is only practical devotion, which is the real proof of love. Therefore, devotion and service are only theoretical and practical forms of the same love. Without theory there is no practice and without practice the theory is not real. Therefore, Vishnu and Shiva are the two forms of the same essence (Shivaya Vishnurupaya). The dance of Shiva indicates the action or work or practice.
Dissolution of Bonds; Not World
While doing service, full concentration is possible only when all the worldly bonds are dissolved. Without the dissolution of the worldly bonds, practical love or service to God cannot continue. Therefore, Shiva represents the dissolution of the world. Here the world only means the network of all worldly bonds. Therefore, Shiva means the dissolution of worldly bonds and not the physical world. Even if the soul is dragged out of this world, the attractions continue in the soul as Vasanas or Samskaras. Hence, dissolution of the world is not the solution. When worldly bonds are dissolved, there is no need of the dissolution of the physical world. Even in the final dissolution (Maha Pralaya), the souls remain with their worldly attractions and therefore there is no significance of the dissolution of the physical world in the spiritual path. When there is no use and need to dissolve the world, why should there be dissolution of the world at all? The Lord created this world with so many plans and if He dissolves the entire world without any use to the soul, it is foolishness. When He wants to take rest, He will withdraw Himself from the world and take rest. He need not destroy the world and take the rest. When the academic work is over for that day, the school need not be destroyed and rebuilt the next day. The teacher and the students will withdraw themselves from the school for rest. Similarly, in Maha Pralaya, God will withdraw Himself from the world and the souls also withdraw from the world and take rest for some time in a state of deep sleep called “Avyaktam”. In fact, God does not need any rest and therefore God is aware of the whole world because His awareness is the basis of the maintenance of the world. If God is not aware of anything, that particular thing does not exist at all. Hence, the rest is only for the sake of the souls.
The dissolution of the worldly bonds can be done even by the knowledge directly, without the intermediate devotion. Realization of the unreality of the worldly bonds can destroy these bonds. Such a destruction of the worldly bonds is neither permanent nor useful. When you have not tasted the divine nectar (Amritam), your detachment from coffee is temporary and also useless. It is temporary because you will be attached to the coffee again within a short time, since you have not tasted the Amritam. Hence, the detachment from coffee without tasting Amritam is only temporary. If you have tasted Amritam, you will not taste coffee even if you are forced. Hence, the detachment due to devotion is natural, real and permanent. Without Amritam, if you detach from coffee, there is no use. Your detachment from coffee is expected to help you in trying to achieve the Amritam. If you are not trying for Amritam, what is the use of leaving coffee? Therefore, you cannot attain Shiva without attaining Vishnu. You have to attain detachment (Shiva) only through the attachment to God or devotion (Vishnu).
The Shiva Lingam represents the energetic wave. The primary energy (Mula Maya) is in the form of waves and matter, awareness and work forms of inert energy (light, heat etc.,) have come out from it. The wave nature of matter is also established in science. The awareness and the work form of inert energy like light are represented by wave too since matter is fundamentally represented by a particle. Lord Shiva in Shiva Loka is the energetic gross body of light in which the subtle body made of awareness (causal body) exists and all these three bodies are charged by the unimaginable God. Hence, the medium here consists of the awareness (causal body), the qualities that are the kinetic energy of awareness (subtle body) and the human form of light energy (gross body). Therefore, the entire medium consisting of the three bodies is only energy, which is represented by the wave. Awareness is also a special work-form of energy. Hence, the Shiva Lingam represents the entire imaginable medium of the three energetic bodies, which happen to be the medium of Lord Shiva or any other deity.
Sacrifice Fruit; Not Action
Knowledge, devotion and service are the three subsequent steps in the spiritual effort. But devotion and service together can be considered as one step, which is the love for God. Devotion generally means only theoretical devotion, which is related to words and mind. But the devotion confined only to words and mind, without action, is unreal and is considered to be the attitude of a prostitute, who shows love only through feelings (mind) and words. Thus, the theoretical devotion aspiring for some fruit from God is the devotion of a prostitute (Veshya Bhakti). But the same theoretical devotion, without aspiration for any fruit from God is good and without such theoretical devotion, service (practical devotion) cannot be born. Practical devotion with aspiration for fruit from God is like the devotion of a merchant (Vaishya Bhakti). Therefore, in both theoretical devotion and practical devotion, the absence of the aspiration for any fruit in return is very very important. Devotion, theoretical and practical, done with desire, are called sakama Bhakti and sakama karma (kamya karma) respectively. The same theoretical and practical devotion without any desire are called nishkama bhakti and nishkama karma yoga respectively. Service or practical devotion consists of action or work and hence it is called as karma. If the karma is without desire it is called as karma yoga and with desire it is called as kamya karma. The word Yoga here means the association with the human form of God and karma yoga means the work or service done for that human form of God.
In both cases of kamya karma and karma yoga, if the practical devotion exists, it automatically means the existence of theoretical devotion in the mind. Without the seed (theoretical devotion) the plant (service) cannot be born. But without the plant, the seed can exist. You can get the fruit only from the plant but not from the seed. Therefore, there is no fruit for mere theoretical devotion without its subsequent expression of service, whether it is done with aspiration for fruit or not. If the seed is unable to develop into a plant, such a seed is a false seed or is useless seed for a farmer. We are seeing now the problems of farmers with false and useless seeds, which do not grow into plants and give fruits. Hence, the theoretical devotion without desire for fruit is good but useless since no fruit can be achieved. You may say that since you are not interested in the fruit, you are satisfied with only such fruitless theoretical devotion. This argument is only a misinterpretation of the truth to hide your selfishness. The aspiration for the fruit means the aspiration for the fruit that has developed on the plant. You must take a good seed and grow it into a plant, which should give a good fruit. Then in this stage, if you do not aspire for the fruit, then alone is it nishkama karma yoga.
Hence, you must do the service without aspiration for the fruit that has appeared as a result of your service. You should not avoid the service saying that you are not interested in the fruit of the service and hence you are not interested in the service itself. Thus the Gita stresses on the karma or work and also on the absence of aspiration for the fruit. Both are equally important and one without the other is useless. The Veda also stresses on work (Kurvanneveha…), sacrifice of the fruit of work (Tyaktena…) and the minimum enjoyment essential for the maintenance of your body and family (Bhunjethah…). You find the corresponding quotations in the Gita also (Kuru karma…, Phalam Tyaktva…, Sharira Yatrapicha te…). All these three aspects are the components of the total Yoga. People have misunderstood this total Yoga and have become lazy by leaving work or service, which is essential for God and also one self, on the pretext that they are detached from the fruit of work. It is like not cultivating the field and not sowing the seeds in the field, stating that you are not interested in the crop (fruit). This is not the sacrifice of the fruit because the fruit is not produced at all. This is not the sacrifice of the aspiration for the fruit because when the fruit is absent, where is the question of the aspiration for the fruit? If the fruit exists before your eyes and if you sacrifice the aspiration for the fruit, then only can it be called the sacrifice of the aspiration for fruit. Then, if your sacrifice of the aspiration for the fruit is real, it should be proved by the actual sacrifice of the fruit. Hence the Gita mentions the sacrifice of the fruit as the real proof for the sacrifice of the aspiration for the fruit (Phalam tyaktva…., sarva karma phala tyagi…).
People have misinterpreted this concept in two ways. One way is to sacrifice the work itself and become lazy under the hypocritical samnyasa (renunciation). The other way is to sacrifice the aspiration for the fruit without the actual sacrifice of the fruit, saying that the Gita means that only the aspiration for the fruit should be sacrificed, without sacrificing the actual fruit. If that is so, how come the Gita mentions the actual sacrifice of fruit? (Phalam Tyaktva…). The Veda also mentions the sacrifice of the fruit (Dhanena Tyagena…). The misinterpretation is only to cheat one’s own self because by such cunning misinterpretation, nothing happens in the right way and something certainly happens in the wrong way. One ends up going to hell for such a misinterpretation that misleads other souls too. Hanuman did a lot of work for the war and in fact He was responsible for finding Sita. He did not aspire for any reward and the chain of pearls rewarded to Him was also sacrificed by Him. Here you find the sacrifice of the actual fruit. Hanuman did not put on the chain on His neck and say that He has sacrificed the aspiration for the fruit! Similarly, Shankara left His mother actually for the sake of the divine propagation of knowledge. He did not sit at home serving His mother, saying that He has only sacrificed the aspiration for the bond! Shankara also said that He is not for salvation, which is the fruit of His service (Na Mokshasya Aakamksha…).
Since the expressed service certainly indicates the existence of real and good theoretical devotion in the mind, service itself means devotion. Therefore, you now have only two stages, which are knowledge and service. Hence, Lord Shiva came down only twice as Anjaneya representing service to God, and Adi Shankara representing the propagation of the knowledge of God.
Service means the real devotion as found in the case of your children for whom you do real service without much expression of theoretical love to them. But that theoretical love must exist in your heart as fire must exist where there is smoke. Anjaneya also had the knowledge from Sun-god and His expressed excellent service to God indicates the existence of real theoretical devotion in His mind. Shankara also did a lot of service in propagating divine knowledge and also expressed devotion through several prayers. Both have all the three stages but Anjeneya stressed on service and Shankara stressed on knowledge. Anjeneya is a monkey representing the lack of firmness and Shankara is a bachelor [renunciant, monk] representing a hundred monkeys (Brahmachari Shata Markatah). But this monkey-nature is only the external cover and does not relate to the firm internal personality. Both did service of God, leaving all the worldly bonds with firm determination.
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