Shiva Dhurjati
Shiva, in the hypostasis of the ascetic
by eminent yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru
“Glory to You, Supreme Consciousness, the only God who wears the garland of skulls around your neck!”……. “Those who have conquered the world and to whom You, who are everywhere, have bestowed Your infinite love, O You Who are omnipresent, must be worshipped by the entire Universe. Even the stormy and terrible sea of incarnation is for them no more than a lake in which they play.” – Utpaladeva.
The supreme ascetic, called Kapardin or Kapalin, with his hair tied in a bun, having a snake as a sacred cord and holding the cosmic fire (agni) in the cup of His palm, animates and makes vibrate, through His rhythmic leaps, the garland of skulls that He wears around His neck and which symbolizes the celebration of the eternal cosmic dance. In this aspect, Shiva symbolizes the universal Godly Consciousness (Bhairava) that gives life, power and movement to limited people, devoid of life and self-consciousness. It (the universal Godly Consciousness) is the one that dances in the immense “graveyard” of the Universe subject to time and becoming, drinking from a skull the intoxicating, sublime liquor, which has the essential flavour of the entire cosmos. It is the cosmic fire of sacrifice (Homa-Bhairava), in which the differentiated universe is burned, offered as an offering, the fire of spiritual asceticism “whose purifying splendour is covered (occulted) by the great ash of the universe that He, Shiva, consumes incessantly.”
Shiva, the primordial ascetic, the one covered in ashes, wandering alone (due to the absolute uniqueness of the Supreme Godly) through the desolation of cremation grounds and in the solitude of the desert of ephemeral manifestation, is the archetypal image of the yogi. Bearer of the mysterious fire, of the destruction of ignorance, He tramples underfoot, in His terrible dance (tandava), the bonds and impurities of His fervent worshipper, transforming the heart penetrated by the flame of His grace into an ecstatic void devoid, due to transcendence, of limited discursive knowledge, of uncontrolled pleasures of the senses and of the egoic will.
However, these great sages, followers of the path of renunciation, who are followers of Kashmiri Shaivism, oppose the so-called ascetics and so-called saints (munis) who seek to superficially imitate Shiva, but who fail to discover him, despite the absurd tortures they subject their bodies to. Utpaladeva writes ironically on this subject: “Shiva, just for his own amusement, deceived the ignorant by appearing in the guise of an ascetic.”
Truly free is he who lives through Shiva
True renunciation, the source of the mysterious spiritual “night”, needs to be purely internal, meaning in reality the total death (transcendence) of the ego, the renunciation of everything that is limited and separating, of egoistic pain and joy, of knowledge limited by discursive logic, of personal effort that is not always in harmony with the Supreme Godly, of paranormal powers, of attachment to the state of enlightenment and even of happiness and love of a spiritual nature, if they are accompanied by the slightest limitation. This complete detachment from everything that is not the Supreme Absolute (God) can only be obtained through a permanent and exclusive focus of attention on Shiva, unique and eternal, because only from the exclusive attachment to Him does complete self-forgetfulness (transcendence of individuality) arise.
This asceticism of love therefore does not consist in isolating ourselves from the Universe, but in being permanently in God. True ascetics spontaneously renounce everything, because they are thirsty for Him (God) alone, and only for Him (God). The generous gift of self goes to the point of sacrifice: the great yogis sacrifice themselves by offering themselves totally to the fire of the undifferentiated Godly Consciousness, its purifying flame then transforming them into a perfect and completely analogous representation of Shiva, a representation which, consuming itself in this love of God, of overwhelming intensity, bears witness to Godly omnipotence. From now on, only Shiva will reign and act through them. Having become servants of Shiva, they give themselves totally to Him. Transcending their limited and egoic will, lost in the infinite will, they consume themselves before God, recognizing the nothingness of the limiting and illusory ego.
Only he who wears the emblem of prostration on his forehead, the dust from the feet of the Godly, is powerful; the only truly free person is, apparently paradoxically, the servant of Shiva (God). In this direction, the sage Utpaladeva says: “Among gods, sages and men, in this triple illusory and unfree universe, only those are truly free who live forever through You, O Supreme and totally free Being.” They live permanently in Him (God), no longer living within the limits imposed by the ego. We find the echo of this idea in the Sufi sage Mandsour Al-Hallaj, who says: “and everything that, in my heart, I have desired to occur, has come true for me, for here I am, the master of all beings, now that You, Lord, have become my Master.”
In accordance with the law of detachment or renunciation, which is fundamental in any spiritual asceticism, only he who, truly realizing Shiva, gives himself to Him totally and unconditionally can become the master of himself and the entire Universe. The same wise Utpaladeva also says: “Glory to You, Lord, Master of the Universe, who gives Your very Self!” This gift represents at the cosmic level the action by which Shiva creates the world in His universal Self (Paramatman), but at the human level it is the unmistakable gift of grace when Shiva enters our heart and unites with it, transfiguring it and cosmizing it in a gigantic and loving embrace.
yogaesoteric
February 27, 2025
