SHIVA, THE ULTIMATE TIME TRAVELLER

 

SHIVA, THE ULTIMATE TIME TRAVELLER

Author’s Preface


He is the One who existed even before the world began.
He is the One who has been prayed to, even when He was unseen.
And ever since the very first time He chose to make His presence known, Shiva has been loved by millions.
Records about Him from ancient folklore are very interesting;
He is the perfection of opposites:
Supreme spiritual Guru, but warrior Chieftain,
Ascetic, but perfect husband,
Mendicant, but householder,
Master of yogic stillness, but King of dance;
Shiva is the fountainhead where paradox reconciles.
In the Hindu pantheon of Gods, He is called the destroyer,
And yet, known by the beautiful symbol of creation, the Shivlinga.

Shiva is a storyteller’s delight.
But because Shiva is hugely paradoxical, it comes as no surprise that, much as He is loved by the masses, there have been times when He has actually been maligned in some circles.This may have been by the design of a select few, as had happened at the instance of His own father-in-law, Daksha. Or then, it may simply be because of ignorance—a lack of knowing Shiva’s esoterics. Ignorance is not always bliss; ignorance mostly leads to a fear, which then makes up its own stories.

 

I believed it was important that Shiva’s endearing mythology, as well as His scintillating spirituality, both needed to be known.
The twin wings that make the truly ethereal flight He eternally embarks upon. It became my call to write a book that gives equal emphasis to Shiva’s story and reveals the fabulous mystic that He is, and indeed, has always been. 

At first, I was overwhelmed by His infinite aspects: What could one write about Him, who is Timeless, Limitless and Boundless? And then, the question itself revealed the answer. One sure mark of Shiva, is that He is bound to Parvati. It is said of Shiva that He does not incarnate. Of Parvati's bhakti (devotion), it is said She is one who can make even Shiva incarnate.
He is Timeless, and yet when Parvati manifests, it is time for Shiva to arrive. He is formless, but when She arrives, He manifests form. She is His eternal soulmate, and they always find each other, through the mists of cosmic time, even through lifetimes; such is the magic of their love! For it is said, Parvati is His wife even from Her previous birth, when She was called Sati.
And I realised that behind the innumerable tales about Him,
at the core of the myriad roles that He plays out, Shiva's story,
is essentially a love story, over and over again.

There is the Pauranic Shiva: The Timeless One vouchsafed to us by the ancient tellings of the Rishis, down to our grandmother’s tales. The Shiva from Kailash.
Shiva, the mountain Chieftain who lives happily with His beautiful Queen, Parvati, and the merry mountain men called ganas. Because His traditional story must always be respected and passed on, it is important to read about Shiva from the Puranas and assimilate this learning into the contemporary idiom of His legend.

 

But there is also the Adhunik Shiva; the Omnipresent, who is always here, lurking in our own hearts, in the present, and therefore the most modern at any time.
For Shiva is Mahakaal, the Ultimate Time Traveller...The Shiva who sometimes comes into the fantasies of writers to make up new stories—as indeed in my own heart He has been, and remains a constant inspiration, stroking my own imagination…

In the deepest reflection, we realise that all things are possible to God; As long as we do remember the Traditional, the modern can be imagined.
In my book, therefore, while there will be conformity to tradition in recalling the magnificent trysts of the players from ancient times, there will also be exciting new characters to introduce a dramatic interplay. These are names which may not have been heard before, but who nevertheless encapsulate the spirit of Shiva’s fantastic bhakts. They reiterate that the enigmatic story of Shiva, enfolds All! Past, present, future, history, mythology and fantasy.
A magical story about the possibility of Shiva in dance with all the mystics of all the worlds, through all the ages and to our own present time.

Aum ShivaShakti Namah!
Shailendra Gulhati

~ SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.

A modern re-telling of Great God Shiva and Parvati's story by Shail Gulhati
Available on Amazon as an E book
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017ECI6CU ( USA)
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B017ECI6CU (INDIA )