Not all forms of God are worshipped. Brahma who creates is not, while Vishnu, who preserves, and Shiva, who destroys, are. This again is counter-intuitive since in western tradition, God is worshipped because he is the creator. So why do Hindus worship a God who is a destroyer?
Few notice what Shiva actually destroys. Popular notion is that he destroys the ‘world with his tandava dance'. But what really Shiva destroys are: Kama (desire), hence his title of Kamantaka, and Yama (death), hence his title of Yamantaka. He is destroying the cycle of birth and death that Brahma creates and Vishnu preserves. He rejects culture, with all its artificial notions of right and wrong, good and bad, beautiful and ugly. He destroys it by shutting his eyes to the world. That's it!
In Shiva, inaction is destruction. If there is no human imagination would the world exist? Shiva is indifference personified. His indifference has cosmic repercussions. Nothing moves. There is no vibration, no sound, no wave, no rhythm, no flow. Only still mountains and snow.
Devdutt Pattanaik: An Idea called Shiva
2 comments:
Two points: (1) Ramana Maharishi used to always say that Shiva was the destroyer of all sins. (2) Mantras reveal much more than mere "ideas"; the oblation and the invocation show forms exactly as enshrined in our temples.
Idea of God represents Imagination? I doubt. First of all Hindus must believe that God is more then mere Idea and Imagination, then world will believe it.
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