PRALAYA - THE END OF TIME

AFTER SATI

The extreme sorrow gave way to extreme rage, and Narada noticed that Shiva was going into a different mood.
He had darkened. His face resembled the darkest cloud in the sky, His eyes became bloodshot, His hair rising in extreme excitement, like the mixed thrill of a warrior, when He is about to embark into an immediate and deadly battle.
He started stomping His feet on the ground, causing the earth below Him to quake, and the mountains in even the farthest horizons began to shake. “Daksha, you will not be spared! Sati, I am coming! Sateee!!”

The ganas repeated the call, “Daksha, you will not be spared! Ma, we are coming!!”
Shiva started a war dance, tugging violently at His own hair and whirling in the air, with His torso doing the most unusual twists, like a man in severe pain. His right hand pulled out His Trishula from the ground where it had been restfully parked for years, as if to jerk it out of its dormancy. “BABHAM!!” He yelled a war cry and lunged forwards. He moved like a one-man army getting ready to wreak havoc on all those who came in its way, and Narada was reminded of a cloud of locusts on rampage.

The world shivered. Devas shivered, Brahma shivered, Vishnu shivered.
Shivering in Shiva’s wrath had become the new extension of the presence of Shiva.
This was something they had never seen before, but a vague and very uncomfortable feeling told them that the end of the Universe was near.
“Pralaya,” spoke Indra. “Pralaya,” chorused the Devas. They feared their own death which seemed inevitable.
“O Mahadeva, save us from Pralaya, save us from your own wrath!”

Art : Varun Rampal

~  From the book SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. by Shail Gulhati

Available on Amazon as an E book

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017ECI6CU and for INDIA exclusively:
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B017ECI6CU

THE ARRIVAL OF TIME

One day, she told Shiva” when are we going to wed?”

“Whenever you wish” He replied, “Today?”

“Haha not today my Lord” Sati laughed, ” you must ask my Father to give me away as bride to you, and then he would be arranging the most fabulous celebrations , which is his style , and His prerogative”

“Yes. Fabulous celebration of your marriage, is His prerogative, also”
Shiva smiled. ”I will ask Him for your hand very soon”

He went the very next day. Unlike all the others, Shiva did not ever wait for a different phase of the moon to signal him his beginnings. He went by his own instinct and emotion, and this time it was overwhelming.
It was a crisp morning, and Shiva was feeling good. He readied Nandi for a ride to Daksha’s palace. Nandi Himself, was in a hurry and charged in true bull fashion to their collective destiny. Together they made a momentous sight, the rider and the ride. Raising merry dust with their hooves , every moment relegated to the past. It was like the perfect symbolism of the ride of Time itself, as they rushed forwards to embrace the future.

And soon they reached the outskirts of Daksha’s kingdom. Nandi’s furious run was still heavy with the vigour of purpose, still robust with virility of expectation. Women plowing their rice fields looked up to see this unstoppable creature heralding His master just past their midst. They were here a moment, and off the fields in the next. But the impression would be a life lasting one: The farmer women knew it was not just a rider that was being heralded, but a whole new time itself had arrived.

~  From the book SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. by Shail Gulhati

Available on Amazon as an E book

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017ECI6CU and for INDIA exclusively:
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B017ECI6CU

WHEN SHIVA TESTED PARVATI'S TAPASYA AS A SADHU

“O Parvati! Dainty princess… till when will you be doing this to get Shiva? We all know you have the signs of a great yogini, despite being born the most royal princess. Till when will you subject yourself to such arduous tapasya? And why exactly are you imploring to Shiva?” The voice startled Parvati into opening Her eyes which were closed in meditation.
Parvati saw an enigmatic sadhu, dressed in ochre robes, replete with a kamandalu, dhyana danda, and rudraksha beads clinging all over his body. He had a white beard which was flowing freely in the wind, but despite this he looked mysteriously young and had an imposingly virile aura.

“Why? Why, because He is my love; why, because He is my life. Why, you ask… because He is my very soul!” said Parvati, and then added a little sharply, “And who, may I ask, are you to enquire this from me, venerable Sadhu ji?”

“Ah, Shiva, that vagabond! He has no work,He has no real followers, no Kingdom, no land, no riches at all. Why would a dainty princess like you want to even call Him a soulmate? Why would you make the same mistake as Sati?”

“I do not like this talk at all, Sadhuji,” said Parvati. “Please refrain from making unfounded comments about my Ishta.”

“Your Ishta! Oh my God, really? This is the whole problem; the man is an idle fellow and yet some have erroneously come to believe that He is an idol! I tell you, the irony of it all…”

“Sadhuji, SADHUJI!” Parvati raised Her voice to cut the sadhu short. “Sadhuji, I will have no more of this talk. You cannot stand here and insult my love, my soulmate, my God!!”

“Alright, if you insist. But He cannot be anybody’s soulmate. Verily He has no soul Himself. All those who know something of morals and spirituality do declare that Shiva has none of these to His merit. Now, look at me instead, I am a meditator par excellence, through thousands of years of tapasya, I have acquired riddhis and siddhis which would make even Gorakh Nath salute me in honour! Verily I can create not just three worlds, but thirty three…” laughed the sadhu, in an almost sinister way.

“Ha!” laughed Parvati. “ Conceit can never be the hallmark of spirituality. Ego cannot accompany attainment, and so you are nothing more than a sham who thinks he can act as a moral police and lecture others about their devotion to their Ishta; but you forget, that that’s the very exhortation and goal of the Shaivite creed; ‘ To worship Shiva, be Shiva’.”

“Who would like to be Shiva, that vagabond, ever intoxicated mendicant?”

“There you go again. I am warning you…” said Parvati. “And what do you mean He has no soul? He verily, is the soul of all!”

“Ah, Sati… Sati…” whispered the sadhu. “The eternal loyalty of Sati.”

“What did you say, Sadhuji? I did not quite hear you. Are you reprimanding Shiva once again?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Have I not warned you…” shouted Parvati, but the sadhu cut Her short crisply and decisively.
‘I am reprimanding Shiva again, Parvati, because of how He lost Sati to Her fate and could not even save Her.”

“You are reprimanding Shiva for what happened to Sati? Who are you to do that… what do you even know of the circumstances that led to Sati’s death?”

“I know,” said the sadhu quietly.

“Oh! you know, do you? Then why do you reprimand Shiva?” said Parvati sharply.

“Because…” mumbled the Sadhu.

“Because?” Parvati raised Her eyebrows, thinking She had finally nailed the conversation, and that now the belligerent Sadhu would concede defeat.

 “Because, I am Shiva,” said the sadhu quietly.      

“Oh, my God!” cried Parvati, as She fell at the Sadhu’s feet, but He swiftly reached out and tenderly raised Her up, so that they faced each other. Locking His eyes deeply into Hers, enveloping Her with one arm, He ripped off His fake beard and ochre robes with His other hand, to reveal the magnificent Shiva in His timeless tiger skin attire.
SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. Part 2 ( Humesha)
Launched 1st October, on Amazon books.
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07HVY1PPS ( India) and https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HVY1PPS ( USA )

SHIVA, THE ISHTA OF MILLIONS

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,
Meditative, but intoxicated,
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.

Once, a bhakt went to shiva and asked to worship him.
Shiva asked, " out of so many Gods, why did you choose me?"

'My Lord, the rishis say that one must choose the Ishta, with whom one can himself resonate, with whom one can himself identify"

" Yes"

“So, i thought while choosing my Ishta, that although God is one, His attributes are different in His different manifestations. Your form held a particular appeal for me. I was awed both by your appearance and character. Here was a lord, with no kingdom, no material acquisitions, no riches, nothing, yet he was bestowing gifts upon others. Here was a God sitting serenely in meditation, a technical God? Someone who loved his wife and children, and was so much at ease with Nature. Someone who loved the forests and the hills, the rivers and the springs and all the beings, that lived in them. I loved the way you let your hair hang loose, and was intrigued at your informal attire.i could relate to you , my Lord, as a humanly endearing man, like any family man." answered the Bhakt.


Shail Gulhati is the Author of the books :

SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.
The Yogi and the snake
Shiva Poetry
NAAM ROOP- A Tribute to the Divine
And Life Said.SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. part 2 (Humesha)
is available on Amazon
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07HVY1PPS ( India)
and
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HVY1PPS ( USA )

SHIVAPARVATI- THE ETERNAL TOGETHERNESS

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.
Shiva is a storyteller’s delight.  But Shiva is not just a story,Shiva is a living spiritual truth.

Shiva is Mahakaal, the Ultimate Time Traveller.  As The Timeless One vouchsafed to us by the ancient tellings of the rishis, down to our grandmothers’ tales, He is the Pauranic Shiva: The Shiva from Kailash. Shiva, the mountain Chieftain who lives happily with His beautiful Queen, Parvati, and the merry mountain men called ganas.

The central import of Shiva’s story, is that of love: God created this universe, simply to love and be loved. The central import of Parvati’s life, is to be with Shiva, always. In so doing even through lifetimes, it is She, who establishes the Hindu belief in re-incarnation; for love it is, that can propel us to be re-born; to manifest ourselves just to be with the beloved, once again.

Parvati, who, as stated above, by Her very appearance ,kindles the subject of reincarnation and past association.
So too, women sing of Him while they wished to get married to someone else, because He is, among many things, a God who lavishly bestows boons on them to find a suitable groom.
He is happily married Himself and the name of His eternal beloved, Parvati, is always fused into His own name.
So often is He referred to as ‘Shivparvati’, that this plural has become synonymous with togetherness.
Shail Gulhati is the Author of the books :

SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.
The Yogi and the snake
Shiva Poetry
NAAM ROOP- A Tribute to the Divine
And Life Said.SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller. part 2 (Humesha)
is available on Amazon
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07HVY1PPS ( India)
and
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HVY1PPS ( USA )


Shiva Parvati Art : Kamalika Majumdar