Previously we gave you some details about the symbolism of the God Hanuman. Today we would like to stop at Shiva, the Hindu God of destruction, nature and yogis.
Shiva is the God of destruction, who destroys what exists so that the new can arise and life can be transformed and renewed. For this reason, it is more accurate to define it as the God who regenerates the universe.
On the spiritual path, it is necessary to destroy negativity, bad habits and ignorance, in addition to leaving the past behind to grow and evolve. It is not for nothing that Shiva is also known as "the greatest yogi" and the Yoga God.
History Shiva: (शिवः Śivá, 'auspicious'), the destroyer god
Within the framework of Hindu mythology, Shiva is one of the gods of the supreme trinity, Tri-murti or "three-forms", in which he plays the role of the God who destroys the universe, along with Brahma, the God who creates the universe and Vishnu, the preserving God. In the older Vedic religion, the only destructive deity was Rudra ("terrible"), but later it became customary to give that god the euphemistic name of Shiva, "auspicious".Characteristics and attributes of Shiva
According to the characteristics of the gods of India, we have the particular that Shiva has, three eyes, one of them in the middle of his forehead; In relation to that, it is said that his eyes have the ability to see the past, present and future. She has blue-gray skin, which is said to be because she ate poison spawned to create a nectar of immortality; on his forehead he wears the month in crescent quarter representing the division of time in months, as well as on the neck it wears a snake which represents the partition of time in years. In addition, it has a skulls necklace that symbolize the cycle of extinction and generation of the races in humanity, hair entangled representing his dominion over the wind, the river Ganges, which flows from the hair of Shiva that symbolizes the purification of sins and of humans, the three lines on the forehead represent the cycles of life: birth, growth, death.
Ssymbolism of God Shiva
Shiva is the God of destruction, who destroys what exists so that the new can arise and life can be transformed and renewed. For this reason, it is more accurate to define it as the God who regenerates the universe.
On the spiritual path, it is necessary to destroy negativity, bad habits and ignorance, in addition to leaving the past behind to grow and evolve. It is not for nothing that Shiva is also known as "the greatest yogi" and the Yoga God.
Shiva and Yoga
In the case of Shiva we find precisely different representations of him that symbolize its creative, protective and destructive energy. One of these representations of Shiva is that of Mahāyogī, the archetype of the yogi par excellence. He appears seated on a tiger skin in the lotus posture (padmāsana) or the perfect posture (siddhāsana), in front of Mount Kailash, which is also revered as a symbol of this divinity. He often makes a gesture of protection with one of his hands, abhayamudrā, which means "without fear" and therefore removes everything that can cause us fear or harm us. This divinity appears accompanied by many other symbols such as the trident, the Ganges river born from his hair, the crescent moon, the drum called damaru, a container for water (kamaṇḍalu), a snake around his neck, bad deeds of a seed called rudrākṣa, the body full of ashes… Almost all these symbols that we have mentioned have to do with the ascetic aspect and devotion towards this form of divinity helps foster that energy in ourselves.
