Shiva Pashupati
Shiva as the Good Shepherd
by eminent yoga teacher Gregorian Bivolaru
Shiva is the providence that takes care of all manifestation, finding for each being, for its own good, a specific place and purpose in the universe and then directs its life according to his own sovereign will. Man, therefore, has no other such rapid possibility of evolution than through fervent aspiration towards him.
In the hypostasis of the saviour God, Shiva saves the human being who is in the ocean of pain. He is the swan (hamsa) who draws from the impure waters of illusion the immaculate milk of discernment and, in his infinite goodness, bestows it upon men.
He is thus worshiped as Pashupati, the watchful and loving shepherd, who through his fire (tejas) impels his flock, lost in the narrow strait of egoism, to find a new way: the internalization that leads to the universal Heart (paramatman). Pashupati uses for this purpose the mysterious soothing energy, grace (anugrahashakti), which resides eternally in the heart of the human being.
Shiva, being unique, can only be reached through him. It is he who first draws his worshiper towards himself, ‘making him worthy of the impetuous flow of his own greatness’.
We can never obtain Godly love only by some technique (by no mechanical action, be it physical, verbal or psychic), for it depends only on grace. Shiva is the one who meets love by granting grace. He inspires love and thus love awakens, and then grace and love form an endless circle, love calling grace, and grace inspiring love.
The Shaivite yogi has only one desire, and that is to love Shiva and adore him permanently, the first tendency of his love being to beg for Grace. Here is what the sage Utpaladeva says in this direction: “O Lord, I humbly beseech Thee, help me always to have near the way to obtain Thy only favour, the eternal participation in the great cosmic feast where the beatific nectar of Thy adoration is savoured incessantly.” (XIV. 10)
In turn, Shiva unceasingly boosts man’s devotion and love. In this direction the sage Utpaladeva says: “Glory be to Thee, the one who thirsts for the gift of a heart ever too full of all the suavity of love!” (XIV.10). Being thus pleased, Shiva dances (reveals himself through his Grace) for those who love him ardently.
When God’s Grace, which demands everything from man in order to free him from all bonds and attachments, and the human heart, drunk with love and deeply penetrated by the sweetness of an ever and ever renewed intimacy, are intimately fused, the one who is loved, the adorer and the love are one and the same Godly reality.
yogaesoteric
June 15, 2023
