The Story of Shiva

Shiva is the ultimate yogi. He’s the first teacher, Adiyogi, the teacher of teachers, the first Master of Tantra. Yoga originates from him.

Shiva represents nothingness, stillness, silence, and living beyond ignorance and obstacles.

To a yogi there is no duality, the poison and the nectar, the good and the bad, the pain and the happiness, they are beyond it all. This is Shiva. So, he drinks the poison and he holds the trident.

Through his mediation, he is attempting to reunite with Shakti.

On this level, he has had the split and so he wants to be united again. Shakti is the divine feminine principle, Shiva is the male aspect, the yin and the yang. Only when they unite can balance occur.

So, Shiva finds Shakti in the human plane, and in the human plane it has to happen through human principles.

Shakti is a princess, born to a king. Shiva is a yogi, living on a mountain, wearing a loincloth, with no possessions, nothing. Yet, they fall in love.

There was a remembrance in Shakti and as they met there was an immense blossoming of love but all the royalty were against it. They thought Shiva was crazy, with his snakes and the bull he rides on, Nandi.

The king wasn’t pleased and so he organised a big fire ceremony to save his daughter from this madman. He invited everyone except Shiva.

Shakti felt so disillusioned with the ego of her father that she jumped into the fire. She knew that if she was not able to be with Shiva in the body, she would find him in spirit.

As she jumped into the fire, Shiva came out of his meditation. He knew that she burned her body and he became really angry. Anger can have a beautiful quality to it. It makes you very honest, very present. He walked down to the fire and picked up her body. That’s when Nataraja appeared, the dancing Shiva.

He took up her body and all the energy and started dancing. He didn’t kill or fight anyone. He danced all around the Himalayas, jumping from one mountain to another, a mad lover carrying the body of his beloved. He was in a trance and there was a unity occurring. The body was gone but he transformed that anger into an immense expression of love.

One of the highest expressions of love is in dance as there’s immense unity in the dancer and dance.

You cannot separate the dancer and the dance. When the dance ceases, the dancer ceases. You can experience the song without ever experiencing the singer. You can know Mona Lisa and not know Leonardo DaVinci but you cannot know the dancer separate from the dance. So, in that there is unity and as he is dancing the body drops. Now there are twenty-seven temples dedicated to the different body parts of the Goddess.

Shiva is the ultimate rebel, the master of death, the annihilator of false identity, the destroyer of the time-bound self and the gateway to the timeless Self. Only the one who dies to the time-bound self can truly live.

Shiva’s trident represents moving beyond the trinity of Creation, Organization, and Destruction. He teaches us to be in the world but not of it, showing up fully, not seeking fulfilment from the world, but rather locating bliss within.

The snake represents the awakened Kundalini. Shiva is the master of Kundalini, the infinite potential of being. He demonstrates to us that yoga is about transformation, transmutation, and turning poison into nectar. He sits on a blanket made of a lion skin, as he has conquered the lion within and without. Shiva practices bring you to silence and fearlessness as you discover your indestructibility, your invincibility.

Blessed Maha Shivratri - The great night of Shiva celebration that takes place on the 18 of February! Invoke your Shiva nature! 

Align yourself with your innate wisdom and make contact with the truth of who you are by joining Lisa for her ‘Access Your Invincibility’ class – only on Sattva Connect. Experience your Shiva nature!

And you may join in on our Maha Shivratri celebrations through the Maha Shivratri - The Great Night of Shiva Series on Sattva Connect.