Lord Shiva as the Universal Force

Lord Shiva symbolizes pure energy, innocence, and divine unity, embracing body, spirit, and cosmic transformation.

- LAKSHMI BAYI

Very much like human beings, Divinities as well as their abodes of worship have "good times as well as bad times". Parabrahmam, the Absolute, which has no attributes, no need for worship to exist, and is complete in Itself is far beyond Space and Time. This is for lack of a better word, pure Shakthi or Energy. Every Deity is a particular combination of qualities taken from within this Parabrahmam. As human beings, it is difficult for us to grasp the colossal Truth of Parabrahmam.

Rather like a complicated mathematical equation being broken down to easy steps, we are able to deal with such a Force only bit by bit. The entire aim of our ancient Sanatana Dharma is to merge back into the very Divinity which created us. Paulo Coelho's work "The Alchemist" is a fairly recent Western work which shows this with utter simplicity.

That the way to Divinity is extremely simple is a Truth. The catch is that it is very difficult to be that simple! Shiva, one of the most powerful Gods of the Sanatana Dharma Trinity, embodies this. One of His names is "Bhola" or the Innocent One and no other Divinity comes anywhere near Shiva in this.

There are so many stories about Shiva. Contrary to a recent contempt for mythology, all religions are enriched by the stories associated with them. It is not possible to imagine Christianity without the Bible. Any Faith without its particular collection of parables, fables etc would end up being a dry collection of theories of least interest except to academicians.

One of the greatest and most unique contributions of our Sanatana Dharma to World philosophy is the concept where physical love is seen as a path to union with the Divine. There is absolutely no sense of shame for the human body. Temples are centers of Worship for Sanatana Dharma. Those ancient carvings have graphic depictions of the human body engaged in pleasuring itself as well as giving pleasure.