Worshipers of Shiva

Lord Shiva

I have been looking at the way various different worshipers view Shiva as God. This is only one aspect of the differences, worshipers may have different practices, traditions and emphasise worship, medditation or jnana (learning and understanding). In trying to prepare this post I have discovered one thing, wordpress does not do tables well. I have therefore put the table into this post as an image, and made it available as a pdf file. The table looks at various groups worshiping Shiva and how Shiva relates to various Hindu views of God. These views are explained as follows:

Ishwara

Ishwara is God as the great lord. This is God the supreme controller, but is a personal God.

Brahman

Brahman is God in the absolute, omnipresent form of God, often described as the Cosmic Spirit, or Paramatman (Supreme Soul). Brahman can not be related to by bhakti or devotion but reached and experienced through meditation.

False mountain tops, fell walking and spiritual progress

mountain

If you have ever gone walking in hills and mountains you have probably come across false mountain tops. You are walking along happily, and the summit is in sight. You feel you are doing very well, people have told you that this is a two hour climb, yet you are almost there after a little more than an hour and a quarter. You push on at a brisk pace, realizing that before long you will reach the top, then it will be easier going.

Just as you almost reach the top, you see that it isn’t the top at all. It is just a ridge, or the slope of the hill flattens out slightly. The actual peak is still a considerable distance off. You look at your map and realise that you should have seen this coming. You are actually not even half way up. Rather than doing well you realise that you are slower than most people. You are probably feeling rather tired, disappointed, disheartened and rather silly. At this point some people would give up, I have been in a group where it has happened. Having thought a point was the top they reach it and feel they can go no further. When I was an inexperienced walker I used to reach these points, sit down in exhaustion, look at the map and try to work out where I really am and where I need to head, and when ready and rested continue. When I was a teenager I remember doing this three times on one mountain, each time convinced that I had reached the summit!

As a more experienced walker I can often see potential false-tops from contour lines on the map. If I am nearing what appears to be a summit I am prepared for it not to be, and continue at a steady pace.

The same thing can happen to us in spiritual progress. We can think we are doing very well, only to realise that we are are not doing nearly as well as we thought. This has happened to me recently, and made me realise that I am not nearly as experienced spiritually as I am as a fell walker!

Blog title change, but to what?

I have decided that I need to change my blog title from “Westerner interested in Hinduism”. I am more than just interested in Hinduism now, I am a follower of Sanatana Dharma. I have to say a follower at the beginning stages, and perhaps not a very good one. But what should I change it to? Well, it should reflect that I am ethnically Western, and that I am following Hinduism. The obvious title is “Western Hindu”, and that is actually the title that I have decided to use.

Why have I bothered to write this article then? Because there are very good arguments that the title “Western Hindu” is not accurate and some would argue incorrect. This article explores the alternative titles that I have considered, and why I have chosen a title that is not the most accurate. I will start by looking at why the term “Western” is could be misleading, and then look at why some people would claim that my use of the word “Hindu” is wrong.

Keep your axe sharp

Once upon a time a very strong woodcutter asked for a job to a timber merchant,and he got it. The pay was really good and so were the working conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work. The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees “Congratulations,” the boss said. “Carry on that way!”.

Very motivated with the boss’s words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could bring only 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but could bring 10 trees only. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees. “I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought.

He went to the boss and apologized,saying that he could not understand what was going on. “When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked. “Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut more trees for you.

This traditional story teaches us a lesson in Hinduism. Keeping our axe sharp means maintaining the basics; purity, truthfulness (satyam) and non-harm (ahimsa) together with regular devotion (bhakti). Sometimes we can get carried away with learning new things and forget the basics.  Spiritual knowledge without the backing of a pure heart and devotion to God will not get us anywhere, we need to keep our axes sharp.

Aum Namah Shivaya

Why Hinduism is the “Eternal way”, the true religion.

Hinduism is more correctly referred to as sanatana dharma, which can be translated as the eternal way or the eternal law.  In this post I hope to demonstrate that Hinduism can claim to be the eternal way, a claim that other religions cannot make. I will also show why Hinduism is the true religion.

First of all I need to define what I mean by the true religion. I do not define true religion to mean the only path, or means to spiritual realisation (moksha, enlightenment or heaven). By that definition Hinduism is not “the true religion”, there is no one true religion in that sense, people can reach enlightenment on other paths. What I mean by true religion is that Hinduism gives the clearest path, with methods and instructions for finding God,  and that all that is valid in other religions can be found in Hinduism.

Lord Shiva, many forms

Shiva appears in many forms. The abstract form of the lingam (sanskrit for mark or sign) helps us concentrate on the mysterious nature of Shiva, that is beyond comprehension or representation.

We have a new Mandir

Last month our old mandir was replaced by a new purpose-built one. I attended one some of the inaugeration ceremonies and I felt very privileged to be there. Much of the ceremony was in sanskrit with translations into Hindi, which I did not understand, though the key points were described in English also. Sometimes less can be more, and the few salient points that I did understand appeared to be just what I needed to know. One was the idea that more than the ceremonies it was the prayers of all the devotess together that pleased God, and that is why we were all asking God in various forms to be present in our murtis. This made me realise that I was part of this, that among the good will of everyone there God was answering partly for me. I prayed that others may come here and be helped on their path as I have been.

One surprise was when the Lord Mayor gave his speech he announced that his wife, the Lady Mayoress was was keenly interested in the proceedings as she is a student of sanskrit. It just shows how studies of Hindu culture are spreading in the west.

Altogether it is a great feeling being together with so many devout people, who’s purpose is to praise God, advance spiritually and help others to do so now and in the future

There is a nice entry detailing the inaugeration of the mandir on the blog of Shri Sadgurudeva Ji Maharaj, which has many pictures.

Books, leaves and Gurus

My wife received a painted leaf in an ebay order, which is shown in the picture on the left. After some research I confirmed that this is a picture of Shiva and Parvati, and found that it is painted on a skeleton leaf from a sacred fig tree.

Many Hindus that to develop spirituality past a certain stage one needs a guru. They also say not to worry about not having one, when you are ready a guru will find you. Despite this I still used to worry about how in the UK I would find a guru. Well, I have not found one yet, but I no longer worry, and the fig leaf is part of the reason.

Thoughts on Cloud Atlas

The novel Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchel is at one level a collection of stories. This review is from the perspective of Hinduism, so I talk about the theme of reincarnation and spiritual advancement more  than conventional reviews; I also skip over the plot. If you want to read a more conventional review, then there are many on the web [1], [2].

The stories describe various characters, a naive 19th century traveler, a rather immoral composer, a female journalist in the 1970s, a present day publisher, a victimised clone in the future, and a member of a Hawaiian tribe in the distant future following the collapse of civilisation. These stories are written with such a diversity of styles that they could almost be from different authors.

Weserner at a Hindu Temple, a year on

It is now over a year since I wrote about my first visit to a Hindu temple. Since then I have been attending regularly with my family. I now feel accepted by the Indian Hindus, and one incident more than anything else brought this home to me.

A new mandir has been constructed in our city, and will soon hold rituals to consecrate the deities and the building. This is a very important event, which we are looking forward to very much. One of the people I meet there regularly asked me if I had been given a personal invitation. I told him no, but I had seen the public invitation on the noticeboard. He called over our pundit (priest), and asked whether I could be given an invitation. Pundit ji said “of course not”, then quickly smiled and gave me an envelope with the personal invitation for me and my family

Now he is comfortable enough to joke about me being accepted, I have absolutely no doubt that my family and I have been! I am very privileged to be at the opening of the magnificent new building. This purpose-build mandir will show the presence of Hinduism to everyone in the city. I have great affection for the old building, which is I believe had previously been a club, but at times it was limiting, with some people having to listen through the doors of the prayer hall during well-attended events.