Shiva.

If I want to teach you about God, when you are operating within the limitations of your mind, within the parameters of your intellect, then I should always refer to God as Light, because with light you see; with light everything is clear. Clarity comes with light, isn’t it?

But once your experiences are beginning to transcend the limitations of the intellect, then we will refer to God as Darkness.

You tell me, in this existence, which is more permanent? Which is more basic, light or darkness? Darkness. It is in the lap of darkness that light happens. What is it that holds everything in the existence? Darkness, isn’t it?

Light is just a brief happening. It is burning; it will burn out after some time. Whether it’s a light bulb or the sun, it will burn out after some time. This will get burned out in a few hours; that will get burned out in a few million years, but it will get burnt out. So before and after the sun, what exists? Darkness.

What is it that you are referring to as God? Everything springs from that; that is what you are referring to as God. What is the root of everything in the existence? That is what you are referring to as God. You tell me now, what is God, darkness or light? Nothingness means darkness. Everything comes from nothingness. Science proves it to you and your religions have always said it. God is all-encompassing, and only darkness can be all-encompassing.

Shiva is the dark one. Do you know that Shiva is the destroyer because He is darkness? He is not light. Light is but a brief happening. When you are living within the parameters of your intellect, we refer to the Divine as Light. If you have transcended, if you have a little experience beyond the intellect, then we refer to the Divine as Darkness, because darkness is all-encompassing.

Intellectually, you have always ascribed the quality of evil to darkness. That’s why you have this problem. That’s your problem, that is not the problem of existence. That’s not the problem with the existence. In existence, everything springs from darkness. Light just happens on and off. That’s why I’m telling you, Enlightenment means absolute darkness. You can’t imagine darkness. You can only imagine light. Only when you are beyond the mind, you will have a taste of darkness. The first form, the primordial energy form, is in the shape of a Linga. The final form before dissolution is also a Linga. Now, in the Indian culture, this has been looked at in many ways.

In India, Shiva is rarely represented with a face. He’s mostly represented as a Linga. A Linga is a combination of the feminine and the masculine. Shiva is also seen as the destroyer. In no other culture can we find people worshiping the destroyer. To worship the source of destruction comes from a deep understanding. Not only that, only a culture with a very deep understanding of life would dare to symbolize Shiva, their God, in a form which could be seen as a phallus and still worship it. This Linga and Yoni (feminine aspect of the Linga), this symbolism is once again something that no other culture could have ever thought of. When the masculine and the feminine meet at the lowest level, it is known as sex.

When the same masculine and feminine meet at the highest level, it signifies the union of Shiva and Shakthi. In this conjunction, Shiva is rupa, or form; Shakthi is Shoonya, or nothingness. Shiva is Purusha (masculine, form); Shakthi is Prakrithi (feminine, infinite, formless), the undifferentiated force of nature. The Linga as the manifestation of the Shiva-Shakthi principle demonstrates the persistence of all pairs of opposites, and nothing can exist in this universe without its opposite or contrast.

Sex is based in the lowest chakra. When you talk about God, when you talk about Divinity, it is suppose to be the highest. Here, in India, the highest in life is represented by the lowest symbolism. When your energies are being dissipated on the level of Muladhara (Base Chakra), then your energies are on the sexual level. This same energy, if it moves to the pinnacle, the Sahasrar, it becomes Enlightenment, becomes Realization; the same energy has taken the gross to the Divine.

The whole process of evolution is just to make the same energies meet at the highest point instead of the lowest. Shiva is the meeting of this masculine and feminine at the Sahasrar. There’s a snake wrapped around his neck with the hood open; that’s a symbol which shows that the Kundalini (Cosmic energy which is depicted as a snake coiled at the base of the spine) has reached the Sahasrar. The Shakthi has a tremendous urge to go and meet Shiva. He won’t come down, so she has to go up and meet him. So those people who don’t take the trouble of going up and meeting him will dissipate their energies at the Muladhara level, in the form of sex.

– Sadhguru.

~ by revolutionwithin on October 20, 2010.