FREEDOM 1992
“Joy in the Heart”
VI
Become Shiva!
Tonight we are going to do whatever it takes to get you to become Shiva! And since nobody was even moved to leap up in the presence of Shiva while we were singing to him, <*> we’ve got a little work to do. I’m going to give you some background on Shiva now so we can get on with the bhajans until you become “jumping Shivas.”
Shiva is very personal to me, a very personal friend, a very personal being who defies being circumscribed by any concept of him. Yet he is always there.
Shiva means “auspicious” or “kindly.” He is indeed both. He is known as the Destroyer, and we welcome the Destroyer because we want everything that is not like God where we are to be transmuted by the all-consuming sacred fire. As the Third Person of the Hindu Trinity, he destroys the universe at the end of each world age so that it can be created all over again.
The Hindu Trinity is defined in the Hindu scriptures, the Puranas, as consisting of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver) and Shiva (the Destroyer and Regenerator). All three are manifestations of Brahman.
Brahman is God in the Beginning–God in the Beginning with the Word. And by the Word did Brahman create and without the Word was nothing made that was made. <1> Do not confuse Brahma with Brahman. Brahma is Father; Vishnu, Son; Shiva, Holy Spirit–the Trinity who serve under Brahman and the Word.
As I mentioned in my lecture “The Inner Path of Hinduism,” devotion to the Trinity is not widespread among the Hindu people, but I teach that the Hindu Trinity is parallel to the Christian Trinity. Shiva represents the stripping action of the Holy Spirit, whose love consumes the forces of ignorance and anti-Love. Shiva is not only the destroyer of the universe: he is the destroyer of evil, hatred, disease, worldliness, evildoers and demons. And, as Anjani Srivastava writes, Shiva is also “a nourisher who bestows long life.” <2> But he will not give that nourishment until he has cleansed the vessel.
When you call to Shiva, you must be prepared for a purging by the holy fire of Love. And if you desire to receive that purging, when it comes you will be filled with such Light and God-Power as to not know where to turn to direct your service to life.
Shiva is known as Shambhu (benign), Shankara (beneficent), and Pashupati, which means “lord of cattle.” Actually, it means the lord of souls in the sense of the shepherd who tends the sheep. He is also known as Mahadeva (great god).
Shiva is associated with death. He dances on battlefields and cremation grounds, and what he is doing is extracting the light that was once held in the cells of the body. He is withdrawing it and sending it back to the Godhead, back to the Great Central Sun.
He is first and foremost the destroyer of the human ego. He destroys the ties that bind us to human existence. You may think you do not want him to destroy those bonds and yet, I tell you, when he does you will find that you have a much stronger binding to God. You will have bonds that come from God and the whole universe that bind you to the soul and the heart of all people in the world, that bind you more tightly to loved ones, to children, to those in your immediate family. When the selfish, self-centered human bonds are not there, the God bonds become much stronger.
We are in a period of transition where we fear to let go of what is really not worth hanging on to, because we don’t understand the unknown. The unknown is what is real. What we have today is unreality. Reality is more rich, more intense in color, in vibration, in thought, in feeling.
Everything you experience today that is ephemeral will pass away. Nothing lasts in the human condition. You can experience the same things at a higher level and they will never pass away. Love never passes away. Wisdom doesn’t pass away. Caring doesn’t pass away. The true love of soul to soul becomes immortalized through Shiva–it becomes immortalized through Vishnu and through Brahma.
Hindu scholar Margaret Stutley writes that Shiva “is also the death of Death, the bestower of immortality on his devotees.” <3> If you are not willing to have your mortality destroyed, then Shiva cannot give to you your immortality.
There is somewhat of an attachment to that human skeleton and that human body. Even the highest yogis have had moments of great burden and sorrow in leaving their body in their final samadhi, when the soul passes on and does not return. This is called the mahasamadhi. <4>
Stutley says Shiva is “the embodiment of yogic power that destroys the bonds binding the individual spirit to the world and so gives liberation.” <5> What I have been telling you in this conference is that you can have God and the whole universe and yet not lose the levels of human experience that are necessary to your evolution and to your working through your psychology. It’s not as if suddenly you were to embrace God as a totality and as your total being, and as a result you wouldn’t know yourself and no one else would know you.
I can tell you, the people who count will know you. The people who don’t count and shouldn’t be your companions in the first place will somehow not be around anymore. You have to expect to make new friends and to make the Ascended Masters, the angelic hosts and the Archangels your friends. And when you do, you’ll meet millions of people upon earth who also move in those circles.
After all, there are some things that are worth making a transition for. There are some things that are worth going up the steps for and leaving behind some of the old landmarks. If you really love your friends and companions, even though they may have led you astray here and there, and you really feel for their souls, the only way you can ever help them is to go up a couple of stairs. Then you can step down and reach out that powerful arm you will have acquired through your devotion to Archangel Michael and pull them up and transfer to them the Light you have gained.
And that doesn’t come overnight. You can’t be a student and a teacher all at once. You need to be working on that path until you come into a true strength where you can help those whom you never could help when you were on an equal footing with them at a lower level of consciousness.
Shiva often appears as a yogi with snow-white face and matted hair, dressed in a tiger skin. He is the friend of yogis who helps them to attain their goal of God-realization.
You are yogis whether or not you practice any kind of physical yoga. You need to remember that. You may be a bhakti yogi, you may be a jnana yogi, a karma yogi or a raja yogi.
So we are all yogis because we are taking upon us the yoke of Jesus Christ, which is Light and which is easy. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is Light.” <6> We are yogis under the Ascended Masters. We are yogis as we perfect the science of the spoken Word.
So Shiva, dressed up as a yogi, is a true friend of all yogis. We see him in this role in the Vedic myth of the winning of the waters. In the myth, the Vedic god Indra slays the serpentine monster Vritra, thereby releasing the waters to flow to the sea. As I mentioned in my lecture on Hinduism, this myth is symbolic of the practice of yoga. Indra represents the Self and the waters represent the light released from the chakras to flow upward to the crown.
In one version of the story, Indra cannot succeed without Shiva. Shiva lends him the strength he needs to conquer Vritra. This tells us that it is Shiva who will give us the strength we need to overcome the serpent of the not-self so that we can attain enlightenment.
Shiva is also known as the distributor of the seven holy rivers. This means that he is the one who distributes the light to our chakras and will help us control the light in our chakras and balance the light at each of the levels.
You will notice that I have a statue of the wonderful dancing Shiva in front of me on the altar. I have carried this Shiva with me all over the world in my Stumps and wherever I speak. Shiva stands between me and the dweller-on-the-threshold of anyone in the audience or anyone in the world or any force on the astral plane that would attack the delivery of the Word from the altar.
If you would like to have a Shiva of this size and presence and strength, please let us know and we’ll see if we can get one for you. I think it’s one of the most important statues of our Church and Shiva works through it for you in an absolutely fantastic way.
Shiva’s consort, or Shakti, appears in three primary forms. Shakti means “power.” It is the Feminine Principle of the Godhead, the Divine Mother who went forth out of the Divine Whole. Shiva’s main Shaktis are Parvati, daughter of the god Himalaya, a benevolent goddess and devoted wife; Durga, “the unfathomable one,” known as the destroyer of demons; and Kali, “the power of time.” Kali is a symbol of destruction, who appears with black skin wearing a necklace of skulls. Yet she bestows blessings upon those who seek knowledge of God and is revered by her devotees as the Divine Mother. As you know, she was the chosen deity of Ramakrishna.
Lord Shiva lives on the summit of the sacred Mount Kailasa in Tibet. He is pictured there both as a solitary ascetic and with his Shakti, Parvati. John Snelling, in his book The Sacred Mountain, recounts how Parvati contributed to the origin of Shiva’s third eye:
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| Legend describes [Parvati] playfully covering her Lord’s eyes as he sat in meditation on a peak of Himalaya. Instantly all light and life were extinguished in the universe until, out of compassion for all beings, the god opened his third eye, which blazed like a new sun. So intense was its blazing that it scorched the mountains and forests of [the Himalayas] to oblivion. Only when he saw that the daughter of the mountain was properly contrite did he relent and restore her father [who is the mountain] to his former estate. <7> |
This legend shows Shiva as the Destroyer. The opening of his third eye represents the opening of the eye of knowledge that destroys ignorance. Swami Karapatri explains: “The frontal eye, the eye of fire, is the eye of higher perception. It looks mainly inward. When directed outward, it burns all that appears before it. It is from a glance of this third eye that...the gods and all created beings are destroyed at each of the periodical destructions of the universe.” <8>
Shiva is also known as the Lord of the Dance, Nataraja. His dance destroys the fetters that bind the soul. He dances triumphantly on the demon who personifies ignorance and illusion.
As scholar Veronica Ions writes, “When dancing, Shiva represents cosmic truth.” <9> In his upper right hand, Shiva holds a drum, which represents the sound from which the universe was created. His upper left hand holds a tongue of flame. His left foot is raised, telling us that we can raise ourselves and attain salvation.
Ananda Coomaraswamy writes, “[The] deepest significance [of Shiva’s dance] is felt when it is realized that it takes place within the heart and the self. Everywhere is God: that Everywhere is the heart.” <10>
Shiva is the great Guru who comes to save us from ignorance, from forgetfulness and our human ego. His kindly love is a fierce love that strips us of all that separates us from oneness with him. Shaivites repeat the mantra Om Namah Shivaya–“I bow down to thee, Lord Shiva”–in order to attain union with Shiva. Let’s give it together now:
Om Namah Shivaya (given 69 times, clapping)
Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
We’re going to give some other Shiva mantras so I would like you to visualize Shiva all around you. See his Electronic Presence larger than life, larger than you, and you inside of him. (This is if you desire, if you have the will to do so.) And as you give the mantra, bow to Shiva before you.
You can follow the exercise linearly by seeing him first before you as you give your adoration to him through the bhajan. Then, as he comes toward you, feel the union of the Divine One with your soul–the Divine Lover of your soul with your soul. And finally, see Shiva superimposed over you and you inside of him.
Now, I would like you to give these bhajans in great devotion to the Holy Spirit–if you feel comfortable doing so. If you don’t feel comfortable with Shiva, that is your right. But if you do and you do the meditation, I ask you to notice when you spontaneously feel that presence of Shiva around you to such an extent that you can no longer remain in your seat but must literally stand up. Then notice when you can no longer stand up without jumping in the air by the very power and force of the Shakti of Shiva, of the sacred fire of his being. And just let yourself do it!
So all who wish to participate in this may do so. <**>
Messenger’s Invocation:
O infinite Light sealed in our hearts, we adore by thy Holy Spirit, Shiva! By the infinite Light of God, so manifest thy rings upon rings of Light in this place. Shiva! [“Shiva!”]
O mighty one of God, come forth! Dispeller of Darkness, destroyer of Death and Hell, descend, descend to the depths of planet earth. Come now! Multiply your Presence a billion times. Stand in the aura. Dance in the aura! Sit in the heart of every lifestream upon earth. Shiva! [“Shiva!”]
O living Light, penetrate now! Penetrate now, Mahadeva. Penetrate now! Let us be drawn up in the fire of the Ruby Ray, in the planes of the Dhyani Buddhas and the planes of the Bodhisattvas and the planes of the Buddha of the Ruby Ray.
Lord Gautama, Sanat Kumara, Seven Holy Kumaras, Lord Maitreya, Jesus Christ, all hosts of the Lord’s Spirit of the Great White Brotherhood, invoke now Shiva! [“Shiva!”]
O living Light, draw the line now. Draw the line now! Draw the line now! As thou didst assist Indra, so release and free now our geothermal waters! Release and free now our geothermal waters!
[Congregation affirms with the Messenger:]
Release and free now our geothermal waters!
Shiva! [“Shiva!”]
Come forth, O Divine Mother! Come forth, Parvati. Come forth, Durga. Come forth, Great Kali. O thou Divine Mother, secure the earth unto the very core of the earth. Secure the Grand Teton and the Royal Teton Ranch. Secure the earth for the Lightbearers all!
I call unto the Lord Shiva in this hour for the binding of Death and Hell. All hosts of Shiva, all manifestations of Shiva, mighty Electronic Presence of Shiva, be everywhere in the earth this night, in every bush and flower, in every heart of every deer, every elk, all that roam these lands. O God in all levels of creation, let there be now, we pray, the liberating power of Shiva! [“Shiva!”]
I call forth the Light. I call forth the living presence, Brahman. Brahman, Brahman, Brahman, come forth! Release through thy Word the glory of creation, the victory of the Great White Brotherhood in the earth, the victory of all Ascended Masters and their chelas. Blaze the power of the Godhead now, O Lord!
Come forth, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva! Come forth, Vak, Divine Mother! We greet thee in our hearts, in our temples. Within, without, thou art Shiva! [“Shiva!”] <***>
“Become Shiva!” was delivered by the Messenger Elizabeth Clare Prophet prior to the dictation of Lord Shiva on Tuesday, June 30, 1992, during the ten-day conference FREEDOM 1992: “Joy in the Heart” held at the Royal Teton Ranch, Park County, Montana. It has been edited for publication.
*. The Messenger and congregation sang the bhajan “Siva Sambhu” (number 654) prior to this lecture.
1. John 1:1-3.
7. John Snelling, The Sacred Mountain, rev. and enl. ed. (London: East-West Publications, 1990), p. 11.
9. Veronica Ions, Indian Mythology (London: Paul Hamlyn, 1967), p. 44.
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