Shiva – who he is, Sadhguru

 'Shiva’, it is the freedom of the uncreated, the liberation of one who is not created. (Long pause) He has been my fifty per cent partner in everything that I do, but still he overwhelms me. (Laughs) It is not hundred per cent correct to say this, but we can say that the source of the sound ‘Shiva’ emanates from this space. It’s almost like that (Kerdar).

One way of assisting yourself to be with this is that with every step that you take, you utter ‘Shiva’.

There are no compulsions about this, but if you wish to know something else here, you must minimize yourself. You must simply make yourself very small and every step that you take, we will go with a ertain mantra.

‘Shiva’ means ‘that which is not.’ Not that which is, but that which is not. If you want to put it in logical terms, we have been saying everything begins from nothing and ends with nothing. Everything that’s here has evolved itself out of nothingness; now it is here; and again it goes back to nothingness. This is a fact of life. That nothingness is Shiva. What we call ‘shoonya’ is Shiva. That emptiness is Shiva. You can call it by any name or form, or if you have that much awareness, you can look at it as a formless energy. But that which contains everything, that which is not, is Shiva.

We have given many names to this energy, many forms also. One important aspect of Shiva is Shambho’. Normally, Shambho, or that aspect of this root energy, is worshipped only by people who are on the spiritual path, because the word ‘Shambho’ means ‘the auspicious one.’ The most auspicious thing that can happen to you is to realize yourself, is to reach the highest within yourself.

The most auspicious thing that can happen to you in your life is that you reach the peak within yourself. At Isha, the energy of Shambho has been very dominant. In that form we are able to call him down to us here, very easily. In that form he seems to respond to us much better than any other form.

One reason why this has been said is that this energy is towards your dissolution; this energy is for you to reach your highest peak. This energy is not for begging; this energy is not for getting a little more advantage out of life. This energy is only for those people who are seeking to reach the very peak of their consciousness.

So for what we call Shiva, for that nothingness or for that energy, we have given a form. The form also has been created in such a way, in the tradition, that you should not be able to digest him. You can’t arrive at a conclusion that he is a good man. I don’t know if you are aware of these things, but in the Shiva Purana, there are such wild stories about Shiva that you can’t believe that this could be a god. But that’s where the essence of Shiva is.

These kinds of stories are there about Shiva, just to make you see that you cannot perceive him through your mind. He is impossible. He is everything that you don’t want; at the same time he is the very root of life. That’s how the Shiva Purana has been built. The whole idea is to destroy your logical mind so that you open up to a different dimension of life altogether. So if you have to open up Shiva, or that energy which we call Shiva, this one (referring to the mind) is not useful. You have to keep it aside. Only then you can feel it; only then you can experience it.

For me, he is alive; for me he is always with me. I never worship Shiva or anybody. But for me he is alive. Every moment of my life, he is there with me. Everything that I do happens out of this. It is not a question of belief; it is not a question of ‘do you like this idol very much’, or ‘what is your ishta devta’. It is just that his energy is always with me. It is within me; it is outside of me. This is a living experience.

If it has to become like this – that God is not something that you worship, but is something that you call yourself, that which is you – then one significant step you need to take is to destroy the logic which separates everything. That is the basic trick with the logical mind; it sets everything apart. If everything has to merge into one, if everything has to become nothing, or if everything has to become Shiva, this mind has to be dissolved.

Most of the deities were established for well- being; a few of them were established for liberation. Always people who are seeking ultimate liberation have been on the worship of Shiva because Shiva is the destroyer. So this is a form that has been very well established as a force to destroy your ignorance and your limitations. Is he real? As real as you are.

People often ask me, what about this Shiva and you? They say, in many ways you are religionless, you are godless, but what about this Shiva? So I usually tell them that Shiva is my fifty per cent partner. Sometimes he is a sleeping partner; I am the active partner. Sometimes I am the sleeping partner; he is the active partner. (Laughs) We keep playing this game between the two of us. If both of us work together, then one world will not be enough; we will need two. So we never work together. This arrangement is working very well for me. Now this sounds audacious, but that is the reality. Maybe people from outside cultures won’t understand this fully. But for people who are born in this culture: everything that you think Shiva is, I am.  (Laughs) That is the reality in many ways.

Excerpts from Himalayan Lust