Sadhguru: I'm not a worshiper.
I have never prayed to Shiva or to anybody in my life, never not even once.
But he's been my breath and being always.
Sadhguru: So here we are exploring and expounding the glorious ways of Shiva.
The only way you can grasp what's happening here in the next seven days is…
The first part of Shiva’s teaching was to Parvathi, his wife.
It was taught in a certain intimacy, in a certain closeness, certain lack of resistance
from the other person.
If you want to grasp this, you have to sit here like the Devi herself.
Otherwise that part of Shiva’s ways would be totally out of reach.
Shiva expounded various types of Yogas, every kind.
The most gentle and compassionate Yoga, the most ruthless forms of Yoga, both were expounded
because with him he has no qualms about anything.
He has no morality, he has no right and wrong.
For him, his body is just an instrument.
Everything in the existence is just an instrument to ultimate realization.
So, depending upon the level of preparedness of the person who's sitting in front of him,
accordingly he went.
Shiva, the Adiyogi came to an inner state of stillness, where if he closes his eyes
he can sit like this till the end of the world.
Simply he sat.
Himalay, many of you just went there and came.
The mountain is personified.
The king of Himalayas had a daughter whose name was Parvathi, so Himalay and Parvathi
came and started serving Shiva where he was sitting and meditating.
After many millennia, he opened his eyes and blessed Himalay and then he saw Parvathi.
Then he told Himalay, it is improper for you to bring a woman where there is an ascetic,
you take her away.
Immediately, Parvathi said, “Why are you rejecting me?
And who are you to reject me?”
You are the basic principle of the existence.
These two are known as purusha and prakruthi.
Purusha is the masculine, prakruthi is the feminine.
Prakruthi the also means nature.
Purusha is the fundamental principle.
Prakruthi is creation.
You are purusha but without prakruthi this is no action in you.
You are just inert.
You cannot do anything by yourself unless there is prakruthi.
Shiva said, “I can dismiss and dissolve prakruthi right now, I created it, if I want
I will dissolve it this moment.
Don't talk to me all this nonsense you go.”
Then Parvathi said, “If you have so much power that you can dissolve prakruthi, why
are you doing this asceticism?
And why are you sitting in these mountains?
These mountains are prakruthi, the air that you breathe is prakruthi, the sky is prakruthi,
everything is prakruthi.
And if you dissolve this, you will have no role to play, you will just become inert,
absolute emptiness which you are.”
He liked the argument and the spunk in her but he still pretended to be very angry and
asked her to leave.
She refused to leave.
She has been performing immense austerities to become the wife of Shiva.
She was completely determined and focused.
Her only focus was this; single point agenda she was going on.
Then, people interfered and Shiva decided to marry her.
He married, but there was no involvement.
He still lived as an acetic.
She was beside him.
He accepted her, but he still continued as an acetic.
How will she find fulfillment as a woman?
So, she was desperate to have a child.
So when Shiva was not there, when she was having bath on the banks of Kanti Sarovar
– where some of you happened to go this time – she took out the sandal paste that
she had smeared on her body plus a little earth and formed a little boy out of it and
infused life because she wanted to enjoy the child because she's been cursed to be barren
and Ganapathi was born.
Shiva was in the mountains meditating, after about twelve years’ time he came back.
By then, Ganapathi, he has grown into a twelve-year-old boy.
Parvathi was having bath, so she had asked Ganapathi to watch out so that nobody comes
this way.
He was standing guard for his mother, Shiva came.
He was in a certain mood.
He was just walking in, after twelve years he's walking into the house.
Ganapathi stopped him that you cannot enter.
He asked, “Who are you?”
he said, “It doesn't matter who I am, you cannot enter.”
Shiva just took his axe out and chopped his head off, so the boy fell dead.
When Parvathi came from her bath and saw her son dismembered, she just went into such sorrow
and angry with Shiva she said, “You have to do something.”
Then he just came home and he killed his own son and now his wife is angry, you know, lot
of trouble.
Then he sent out his gana’s, “Go out into the mountains.
The first animal that you see, behead the animal, bring the head.
I will resurrect this boy once again.”
So the first animal they saw was a baby elephant.
So they chopped the head of the elephant, brought it.
Shiva brought him back to life with an elephant head.
So you see Ganapathi with an elephant head.
Sadhguru: And when he saw Parvathi’s plight desperately trying to fulfill herself through
normal processes of life, Shiva was out of his compassion said, this is not the way for
fulfillment and then the Yoga started.
He started teaching the methods of self-realization to Parvathi saying that having children, bearing
children is not going to read you… lead you to fulfillment.
Here is the way and he opened up the possibility of Yoga.
When we say Yog… ways of Yoga, we are looking at getting mastery over the fundamental processes
of life, the very process of creation and dissolution.
In great detail and in such gentle ways, Shiva went about expounding the ways of Yoga to
Devi.
The Sutras, the Yoga sutras of Shiva are such that almost in every sutra he refers to her
as the resplendent one, the gracious one, the beautiful one.
So, you need to understand that this teaching transpired between two people with utmost
intimacy.
Intimacy should not be understood as sexuality.
Intimacy means there is no resistance.
There is no need to fight through this person.
This person is absolutely open to whatever is being offered.
So it is in such a state that these sutras were offered.
So, the sutras will be so subtle, so gentle – a thinking mind, an arguing mind will
wonder, “Will such a thing work?”
But it worked miraculously for her and she became fully realized.
Here, if we have to expound Yoga in Shiva’s ways, you have to really sit in my lap, absolutely
no resistance.
Either you have to sit here like a Devi or you have to sit here as a child.
If you can't do these two, you just have to enjoy the party.
We’ll make sure the party is good (Laughs).
Shiva repeatedly referred to Devi as the resplendent one.
So, you must be that way, you must dress that way, you must be that way so that I can refer
to you that way, okay (Laughs)?
Sadhguru chants Nagendraharaya Trilochanaya (Shiva PanchaksharaStotram)…
When we say Shiva’s teachings, we need to understand that we are not talking in terms
of philosophies or ideas.
These are purely methods.
They're just methods to get a person moving from one state of consciousness to another.
There is no teaching involved.
There is no philosophy involved.
Shiva is not a philosopher.
He's a yogi.
When I say he's not a philosopher…
See, it's very easy to be philosophical.
In fact, the less you know, the more the chances that you will become philosophical.
It's very easy to become a philosopher.
You just have to read couple of books and misunderstand them.
You can make become a philosopher.
The reason why you're talking about something that is written in a book is because you have
not perceived, grasped life in any depth.
If you had even read a single page of this vast existence,
all your life you would be talking only that, there wouldn't be time to talk about anything
else.
So Shiva is a yogi, purely existential, not philosophical, not intellectual.
This is not something that you can understand.
This is not something that you have to be convinced about.
This is not something that you have to agree with.
This is something that you learn to relate with.
If you can relate to it and experiment with it, it will do miraculous things for you.
You could become as blissful as Devi became that she just went mad as a March hare and
romped (Unclear) about the mountains a many millennia, we’ll curtail the time for you.
But we got the mountains, we got the madness, we got everything (Laughs).
As he started expounding the various dimensions of Yoga, Devi took on various forms.
She became love, she became compassion, she became anger, she became fury, she became
deadly, she became very pleasant, she became unpleasant she took on every kind of form
that could happen within the human consciousness.
As she took on these forms, they went from the subtle to the more and more intense kind
of forms.
As Devi took on various forms,the seasons changed.
The atmosphere in the world changed, because she's the Shakti, the basic energy behind
the existence.
As she went into many phases of her consciousness, everything around changed, and then he brought
her to a state to make her realize all this is just a play of energy.
She's none of these things.
What she is, is beyond all these forms that she can take, and to harness that energy and
make it happen the way it should happen is the science of Yoga and the expression of
Yoga started.
Shiva said, what you went through right now is just a play of your energy, this is not
you.
Then Devi asked, “How do I realize that this is not me?”
Then Shiva gave her a simple process.
Sadhguru: The dancer who's here her name is Anita Ratnam, probably most of you already
know.
She's one of the foremost exponents of fusion kind of Bharatanatyam.
She is internationally acclaimed artist.
She's performed almost every part of the world.
So, she will be doing the Nada Aradhana.
This is a part of the Indian temple culture.
That is the puja or the worship was not just verbal.
So people learn to use their whole body as a form of worship.
Many of you you're practicing surya namaskar, which is a form of worship, using the entire
body to get into a worshipful activity within you.
Similarly, dance also was used as a form of worship and as a form of involvement.
Speaker: You said until you explode, I'm not your guru, I'm just your friend.
Now I'm troubled.
I want a guru.
I've got a few friends already but I (Sadhguru Laughs), I want a guru.
So here I am to explode.
Please explode me (Laughter).
Sadhguru: So, I want you to understand you're sufficiently packed with explosives every
one of you.
Only thing is, some of you have kept it so damp, it doesn't light up.
Or some of you don't know where the fuse is (Laughter).
So, I can easily light it up.
If you're damp, we can dry you, the weather is cloudy, it is not assisting.
But I can dry you up and light you up.
You just have to allow it.
So right now you don't know how to allow.
If I say “Allow me to do it.”
Am I not allowing you, I came to the program.
I'm sitting here.
What else am I supposed to do?
So you don't know what it means to allow.
So right now I'm telling you just be involved, absolutely.
Involvement does not mean Shivaa (Laughter).
That's not involvement.
You just go.
Simply go.
Total involvement.
Like, this is the last thing that you're going to do in your life, like that you must do
everything.
Every breath, every step, every word, every act, you must do it like this is the last
thing you're going to do in your life.
With that involvement if you do, I’ll explode you, because you have… you’re packed with
explosives, everyone of you (Laughs).
I don't have to, you know, put any explosives into you, you are sufficiently packed.
But damp are hiding the fuse (Laughs).
You don't know where the fuse is.
You don't know how to light; you don't have a match stick.
I have all the fire you want.
If you just show some involvement, we will explode you.
Speaker: As the story goes, Brahma, as he often does, granted the boon of invincibility
to Mahisha, a powerful ambitious asura.
Except, Brahma said, “I can't give you immortality.”
So Mahisha thinks and says, “Make me invincible to any God and any man except a woman.”
And so when Mahisha begins his reign of terror, Shiva and Vishnu congregate, they not just
chastised Brahma but they also say to themselves, “Our wives are really too gentle to take
on this brut, so we have to create a new divinity.
A mighty force, whose energy will be as swift as an arrow, unafraid, will rush forth to
shatter any obstacle.
She will be the best of us,” Shiva says, and so is created Durga.
Tonight's presentation is called Andhari – one of the many names that Durga is given, another
being Ishwari, the wife of Isha, Shiva.
The first scene in Andhari describes the goddess as world mother.
And as in one of the old epics, she is described as a giant female spider who spins the world
as her web from her body.
The world is created and she watches with great joy at her creation but then slowly
the dark forces prevail.
She is called upon to be reborn in a terrible, aggressive powerful form as Durga.
And the great battle that lasts for ten days and ten nights, Mahisha is ensnared and victory.
The Goddess is led in a great procession to the ocean where she is immersed and everybody
waits for her return into their homes the next year.
At the end of Andhari, Durga is so disgusted with the greed of humanity that like a female
spider who not only spin… spins a web but then consume it and destroy what she has created.
She decides it's time to completely annihilate everything in order for the world to be created
again.
All that is remaining is a lamp which symbolizes hope.
A pregnant woman in whose womb is an unborn female child that she carries and hangs around
one year like her yearning to show her compassion (Applause).
Sadhguru: Now that Anita was… gave us a fantastic display of Durga, I think we should
say something about Linga Bhairavi – a fiercer aspect of the Devi in the form of Linga Bhairavi
will be consecrated here as a part of the Dhyanalinga temple.
It will involve various aspects, it will be a completely different kind of consecration
and a different kind of space and energy.
So, this temple will be coming at the southernmost corner of southern… southwestern corner
of the main temple, the parikrama that's coming up.
Maybe many of you will have the opportunity to witness the consecration.
Speaker: Sadhguru I was just wondering that in the stories that you tell us about Karthikeyan,
the elephant God or what is depicted in the dance, what is the spiritual message or should
we just hear it is a story or there’s something deeper?
Sadhguru: When Parvathi…
I'm telling you another story (Laughter).
When Parvathi asked Shiva
of the spiritual significance of many of his actions, “I can understand this, you're
meditating.
I can understand, okay, that is a spiritual thing.
But now you're dancing.
Now you're hunting, now you're drinking, now you're smoking, what is the spiritual significance…
significance of all this?
And you have all kinds of distorted and demented beings around you.
What is the spiritual significance of all these people?
I don't see any spirituality in them.
Why do you have them around you?”
So Shiva said, “There is nothing in existence which is not spiritual.
Everything is spiritual and realized.”
Now, all the methods that we're talking about whether it is a story or a joke or a meditation
or a process that we're doing, it is just to bring it into your awareness, what is it
that you’re clinging to?
What is it that you have to...
What is it that's obstructing you?
You just have to look at those things.
Don't try to understand where to go.
You don't know where to go.
What is it that is stopping you?
You just have to understand the obstacles.
Don't try to understand the root of life, because it's not a dimension to be understood
but you can become that.
Sadhguru: Now, one important aspect of your life which doesn't allow you to live your
life in total intensity, which doesn't allow this energy to burst forth with great exuberance
is self-preservation.
Self-preservation means constantly battling against death.
Yes.
The instinct of self-preservation means constantly battling against death.
Or in other words, it is the presence of death.
Constantly there, every moment of your life, whether you're conscious of it or not conscious
of it, every moment the presence of death is there, which makes you restrained about
everything.
If death was not there, as it's been removed for you for these seven days (Laughs), If
death was not there, you would do so many things, isn't it?
You wouldn't hesitate for anything.
You would jump off the mountain if you felt like it.
So tomorrow, the whole day, we will spend on death.
I want you intensely involved with this.
I'm talking about it today so that you're prepared for it.
You don't resist it.
I have already given you the guarantee.
Seven days you're guaranteed.
So, tomorrow you must make a huge effort to die.
Keeping you alive is my business.
Okay?
The greatest calamity of the human mind is that it is against death because the moment
you reject death you also reject life.
Either we can refer... refer to this process that you're right now going through as life
or we can refer to this process as death.
It is happening, one day it is going to be complete.
But the very word death has brought so much fear into people simply because of a complete
misunderstanding about the very nature of what it is.
The way most people have treated their body, suppose somebody offers you a deal, “You
drop this whole body, we'll give you a new body.”
Won't you make the deal?
You'll make the deal, isn't it?
So you're not afraid of losing the body.
That's not the issue.
It is the personality.
It is your ego which is so afraid of losing itself.
Where is your ego located?
It's in every part of your body.
I'm talking the physical geography of the ego.
It's everywhere.
But its main location is in the face.
So right now, we want to deface you a little bit.
For today, you should not be able to look at your face nor should anybody be able to
look at your face.
For that we have a device.
You should become faceless.
Once your ego is not a problem, then you will see death is not a problem.
It’s very simple.
Death is a cosmic joke.
If you... if you get the joke, when you fall on the other side it'll be wonderful.
If you don't get the joke, if you're here, you fear the other side.
When the other side comes, you just don't know what it's about.
So today it's an attempt to bring you to an experience where you grasp the cosmic joke,
where death becomes a laughing matter in your life.
Here we will go through a certain process where you have the opportunity to go through
the process of death, of course with the guarantee that I've already given you.
So do not miss this opportunity because now I'm giving you the guarantee, you can die
and you'll be back in a few minutes.
So do not resist it.
Do not miss the opportunity.
Once you know the relaxation of death, then life becomes an utterly effortless process.
Death is the creation of the ignorant.
Death is the creation of the unaware.
If you're aware it’s life, life and life alone.
Shiva is a God who should not be named because to name him is to limit and curtail him.
At the same time the sum of his many, many names also bring out the indescribable mystery
of who he is or indescribable mysteries of what this creation is.
Of his various forms, Kaala or Mahakala is an important, at the same time a fierce form.
As Mahakala, he is the lord of time.
As Kalabhairava, he is the destroyer of time.
When we talk about transcendence, when we talk about spirituality, Yoga, we are seeing
how to go beyond the limitations of time and space.
Because time and space belongs to the physical plane of the existence, once you aspire to
be spiritual what it means is, you're aspiring to be something more than the physical.
Once you're something more than the physical that means you are aspiring to be beyond the
limitations of time and space.
It is only the foolish, it is only the ignorant, who will try to stop the process of death.
The way they’re enlightened or seeing how to make death into a tremendous opportunity
to move from one dimension to another.
Anyway, nature is releasing you from the physical.
If you do it with the right sense of awareness that could become your ultimate liberation
too.
Here today Santosh will present a certain dance piece on Mahakala.