Hello friends,
In the Hindu Pantheon, we know we have so many deity. So many different conceptions of the Divine.
Shiva is one of the foremost of these conceptions. The early conception of Shiva was as the Destroyer. There is a Brahma who creates this universe and Vishnu who preserves it and then at the end of the yoga, at the end of the age, Shiva comes and destroys it or dissolves it back into Brahman. We can say that Shiva also, becomes time Gala because actually what is the destroyer of everything time? Is that which destroys everything? So Shiva is thought of as time itself?
Now, The deities of course are in a sense our human attempts to conceive of that which is inconceivable the infinite absolute Divine reality beyond mind and speech.
Now as with all the deities. Shiva also in time became identified with the absolute not merely the Destroyer or dissolver but the absolute itself manifesting in this particular, form with this particular name, so he becomes the Creator, the preserver and the dissolver.
And of all the conceptions of the Divine in Hinduism Shiva is perhaps the most associated with the absolute with the infinite with the formless reality the formless Brahmin. Beyond name and form, Beyond mind and speech.
Lost in the deepest meditation sitting among the peaks of the Himalayas emerged in samadhi or dwelling in a cremation ground otherworldly completely otherworldly.
The Himalayas themselves are seen as the visible manifestation of Shiva and if you have seen the Himalayas, then you you can feel something of what that leads because they are just breathtaking in their Grandeur, their immensity, their ice covered in Eternal snows and eternally unmoving.
Thank you for reading my post.