Thursday, November 30, 2006

Shiva Shakti and Yoga-Maya

Life is a journey towards our Destiny. Shiva is our destiny. Shiva is the metaphor for the concept of Death. Shakti, in Hindu mythology, is the better half of Shiva. Shakti is the metaphor for the life forces.

Shakti by its very nature is flowing, always moving and never stops. We move towards our destiny pocessed by Shakti. Shakti is thus the mother, the giver of life and its sustainer. when we get tired, unable to keep pace with life; the Shakti must leave us behind. For, Shakti, by its very nature must flow on.

As we stop walking, devoid of Shakti, we lie down. Shiva, the destiny, takes compassion and comes to us.

Devoid of all desires, Shiva accepts us; And, we unite with Shiva, our destiny. we loose all our identity. This is Moksha.

Shiva is the father, for without death there cannot be life.

In the Kali imagery, the Shaki stands upon Shiva! meaning that the death is the foundation of life.

Life builds upon death. This inter-play of duality of Shiva and Shakti is all but apparent. Apparently, this is a duality, but in reality its Unity. Ardhnareshawara metaphorically represents this reality of Unity of the apparent duality. Thus the unified cycle of life and death is represented by kalachakra; the great wheel of time.

But, this duality of life and death is an illusion; the illusion of Yoga-Maya. Yogamaya is infinite, that is Shunya. In sanskrit, shunya literally means nothing, and represents both infinity as well as zero. This nothingness is everything.

Here is its sanskrit shloka:
Itrans format:

shivaashaktisyacyevaM pravijayate yogamaayaa ./
yogamaayastu dhuritaM kAlachakraM ././
kAlachakraM sarvaadie iiti ./
sarvaadie iiti shunyaM ././

Unicode format:
शिवाशक्तिस्यच्येवं प्रविजयते योगमाया।
योगमायस्तु धुरितं कालचक्रं।।
कालचक्रं सर्वादि ईति।
सर्वादि ईति शुन्यं।।

ॐ नमो शिवाय॥

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Friday, November 17, 2006

Illusions by Richard Bach (ISBN 0-440-20488-7)

Illusions by Richard Bach (ISBN 0-440-20488-7)

Illusions is a mystical first person narrative of a lonely biplane pilot, who makes his living by selling air rides for $3 for ten minutes. He gets an imaginary friend and Messiah called Donald Shimoda, with whom he tries to reconcile the preachings of the Bible, the modern physics and the Indian mystic concept of Maya (illusion).
Twice in this narrative the imagery of this imaginary friend borders at schizophrenia. Once when he meets the Vampire and the other time Don is assassinated. The two underlying Christian beliefs, that is of the second coming of Jesus and the violent death that the Messiah must suffer for the salvation of the humankind; are intricately woven in the story. The Indian concept of Maya (Illusion) and that of concept of rebirth is also used as the fabric of the narration.
Richard introduces two innovations that of the God is not referred as He but Is. The second being that imagination is sought to replace faith as the foundation of one's religion.
He attempt to straighten the triangle into a straight line. The vertices's of the triangle being Maya, Christianity and science.
Overall a readable book, if one is comfortable with the concept of Maya.

(c) 2006, Ashish Banerjee, www.Ashish.Banerjee.name

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