Understanding Shivling

Resuming to write after a long break!

A few weeks back we celebrated the Sharad-Navratri or the Navratri leading to Dussehra. This is also the time for Durga Puja and Golu. We are fortunate to have friends from different parts of the country. This helps us to understand the different cultures as well. This year, we had visited many of our friends to see their Golu and their own depiction of the stories.

(DISCLAIMER – Please add Lord or God when reading the names – Shiva, Vishnu or Brahma. I mean no disrespect, but find myself lazy. Being a programmer at heart – consider this as my Global Declaration!)

A very coherent theme everywhere was the theme around Shiva. Some had decorated their Golu with the dolls displaying the family of Lord Shiva. While some had taken to next level with many stories being narrated through the Shiva dolls. Even when many houses had dolls displaying the Dashavatars of Vishnu, presence of the theme with Lord Shiva at its center was very prominent. I have been wondering this affiliation of Golu with Shiva’s themes. I believe, since Golu is celebrated as the celebration of the Goddess Adishakti who is most closely related with Shiva in forms of Sati or Parvati or Kali or Chinnamastika, Shiva theme is a logical inclusion.

At one house they had a scaled model of Mt Arunachalam which is an embodiment of Lord Shiva himself and also the abode of Sri Ramana Maharshi. Around the same, they had displayed 8 Shivling – the most common and popular form of Lord Shiva depicting the 8 temples on the route used by devotees while circumambulating.

My interest was piqued by the display at yet another home where they had 12 different Shivlings – each one had a distinctive color and form. Each Shivling was supposed to symbolize the 12 Jyotirlingas around India. There were a few questions in my mind by now – What are the 12 Jyotirlingas? Does the color of Shivlinga play any role? What is the significance of the Shivlinga shape? And what are the different forms of Shivlinga?

To be honest, there is a complete treatise written by many great scholars around the topics I had questions about. Also, there is a complete purana dedicated to the Shivlinga form of Lord Shiva. There is also a community – Lingayata in the Southern part of India – who wear a Shivling as a necklace. Without hurting anyone’s sentiments, I’ll try to shed some light on the questions that piqued me, and probably will interest many more!

Shivling – is a form of the formless. Lord Shiva is known to be present forever and everywhere. He is also referred to as “Anaadi Ananta”, meaning one without any end and timeless. There are multiple stories for this form of the God. Some of the most prominent ones are as follows –

1.       Once Brahma and Vishnu had a quarrel as to who of them holds the bigger stature. Just then a pillar of fire appeared in between them. The pillar was so big that they couldn’t see either ends. At this time, Brahma went to find the top end, and Vishnu tried to find the lower end. In this search, Brahma tried to lie to Vishnu of finding the end, when Vishnu returned empty handed. Shiva then appeared before them as embodiment of the pillar. This pillar is now signified in form of the Shivling.

2.       Shivling is an ellipsoidal form. This form has no corners. Thus, has the expandability in any direction. Thus, it can be imagined to be of any size! At the same time, it has the property of inclusiveness of everyone and every form.

3.       In the metaphysical interpretation of the things, one can understand the pillar part of the Shivling as the spiritual being, while the surrounding circumference as the material being. The union of the two is explained as the essence of the human life. It explains that the human life requires both the spiritual and the material aspects to lead itself. Knowledge of one without the other is insufficient and never be treated as complete.

4.       Shivling is also considered as a symbol of absolute power. Some scholars have tried to study the presence of the energy waves and their movement around the Shivling. One such example is seen as in the following image. The radiations coming from a Shivling are considered to be really powerful and have often been compared to that of nuclear energy with the Vishnu and Brahma particles analogous to protons(Vishnu) and electrons(Brahma). No wonder why, the nuclear reactors have a dome like shapes that resembles a large Shivling.

5.       The Shivling is also a depiction of the unity in the Trinity of the Hindus – Brahma, Vshnu and Mahesh. As seen in the following pictures –

As a follow-up from the radiation theory of the Shivling, it also explains why one must loo at the Shivling through the horns of Nandi – Shiv’s bull, who is always seated close to him. It is said that observing the Shivling through Nandi’s horns protects one from the various radiations that a human can not handle!

As I mentioned before there are 12 Jyotirlings that are considered the most special and auspicious for every Shiva devotee. Jyotirling is a hindi word which is made by the combination of Jyoti (Light) and Linga(Form of Shiva). As we saw in the point #1 in the prior section, when Shiva emerged as pillar of fire, it is said the same pillar was seen at 12 different places across India. This is how the Jyotilinga came into being. Each Jyotirlinga has its own story and importance. I shall try to cover these in next article. Till then stay tuned.

And to pique your interest, there is a peculiar form that is observed in the Shivling as one travels to different part of India. Can you identify them? Hint – observe the Jyotirling.