Balvihar Camp - Swamiji’s Talk to Parents on Lord Shiva In his address to parents of Balavihar children, on May 31st, Swami Nikhilananda Saraswati touched on various aspects of Lord Shiva. He said that though Gods are many, they are expression of Brahman and everything is a play of that One. Just as the ocean expresses as rivers, lakes, ponds and streams, the Supreme Reality expresses as different names and forms. Though diverse physically and intellectually, our essential nature is the same as Ishvara, just as water bodies though different in shape and size are essentially water. The entire world is the body of Ishvara and the essential nature of jiva and Ishvara is one. The most beautiful form of Ishvara is Lord Shiva. Describing Shiva in the form of Nataraj, the cosmic dancer, Swamiji said that it is a symbolic representation of Ishvara. The world is like the dance of Ishvara; every atom, planet and star, the moon, the earth are dancing the dance of creation (shrishti), sustenance (stithi) and dissolution (laya). Shrishti, stithi and laya go on and on continuously with many beings and jivas being born again and again. We all have one thing in common – the ignorance of ourselves. Our essential nature is happiness. Jiva is Bhagavan himself. Bhagavan is sukhaswarupa, but we are unaware of this and do not experience it. This is bondage and this has also come from Bhagavan. Swamiji then described Lord Shiva’s parivar. We have Lord Shiva, his wife, Parvati and their sons Lord Kartikeya and Lord Ganesha living in Kailash Parvat. They have their own vehicles, bull, tiger, peacock and mouse. Each vehicle is totally different from the other. The bull or Nandi represents strength and sturdiness, can sustain for long, but when angered can get enraged and go into fifth gear; Parvatis’s vahan, the tiger or lion is also powerful and strong; Kartikeya’s peacock is like a sports-car that can zip at high speed; and Ganesha’s mouse is like the nano that cannot be seen when Ganesha sits in it! All vehicles are rather strange and not natural friends. The peacock and the rat are natural enemies; the snakes around Lord Shiva’s neck are food for the peacock; yet they all live happily together. A good lesson can be learned here – that each and every family member, though diverse and different, can co-exist in peace and harmony.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 14:30:01 +0000
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