Lesson 326 – Dancing with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s real voice

What Is the Nature of Our God Śiva?

ŚLOKA 16
God Śiva is all and in all, one without a second, the Supreme Being and only Absolute Reality. He is Pati, our Lord, immanent and transcendent. To create, preserve, destroy, conceal and reveal are His five powers. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
God Śiva is a one being, yet we understand Him in three per­­fections: Absolute Reality, Pure Consciousness and Primal Soul. As Absolute Reality, Śiva is un­manifest, un­changing and tran­scendent, the Self God, timeless, form­less and spaceless. As Pure Consciousness, Śiva is the mani­fest primal substance, pure love and light flowing through all form, existing everywhere in time and space as infinite intelligence and power. As Primal Soul, Śiva is the five-fold manifestation: Brahmā, the cre­ator; Vish­ṇu, the preserver; Rudra, the de­s­troy­er; Maheś­va­ra, the veiling Lord, and Sadāśiva, the revealer. He is our personal Lord, source of all three worlds. Our divine Father-Moth­er protects, nur­tures and guides us, veiling Truth as we evolve, revealing it when we are mature enough to re­ceive God’s boun­tiful grace. God Śiva is all and in all, great be­yond our conception, a sa­cred mys­­tery that can be known in direct communion. Yea, when Śiva is known, all is known. The Vedas state: “That part of Him which is characterized by tamas is called Rudra. That part of Him which belongs to rajas is Brahmā. That part of Him which belongs to sattva is Vishṇu.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 326 – Living with Śiva 

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Why a Guru Is Necessary

Many of you have been studying with me for ten, twenty or thirty years. I want you to think and think through the rest of the day about the spirit of the satguru. Suppose you didn’t have a satguru. You would be guided by the spirit of your intellect, or the spirit of your instinct, or the energies of confusion. The satguru only has one job, to keep his devotees on the right track. We do not follow the way of words, which is repeating from memory verses and stanzas of scripture with meager mental interpretations of their meaning. We follow the way of transformational spiritual unfoldment. We follow the mārga of sādhana and tapas. Śishyas move from one stage to another in spiritual unfoldment as they progress through the different petals of the higher chakras and come into one or more inner awakenings, one after another. They are not to settle down in any one or several of the chakras and consider, “This is a nice life. I like this part of my unfoldment, so I won’t strive further.” They can’t do that, because the spirit of the guru drives them onward. He is constantly thinking and saying, “This is not good enough; you can do better.”

Did Chellappaguru ever say to Yogaswami, “OK, now we’ve done enough. Let’s just be ordinary”? No, he kept walking him around and feeding him, walking him around and feeding him, walking him around and feeding him, walking him around and feeding him, until finally Satguru Yogaswami was walking around and feeding everybody, walking around and feeding everybody, and eventually everybody was doing the same thing. Passing on that spiritual quality, we don’t have any problems. We don’t have to solve problems with words. Problems are tackled with words when you are following the path of words. This can be a long, long, tedious process. But when spiritual awakenings are there, problems are solved by lifting consciousness. The problem goes away, just automatically goes away. It is a do-it-yourself process, a mystical tantra not to be ignored.

Every Hindu needs a satguru, a preceptor. The satguru is as much a part of Hinduism as are the temples, as are the Vedas and our other great scriptures, because not everyone can see for themselves. They need someone to see ahead a little bit for them and to keep them on the right track and in the right mood. Because people are tribal, they need a guide. I’ve heard prominent swāmīs all through the years remark, “You all need a spiritual guide. If you don’t want me, find somebody else, but you need someone to guide you through life.” It could be a grandmother, it could be a grandfather, it could be your astrologer, a temple priest, a visiting yogī or a resident swāmī in your community, a sādhu, a pandit or a rare satguru—somebody that you will listen to and follow. The choice must be made after much consideration, after talking with parents, consulting elders and searching the heart. Once the choice is made, don’t change your mind. Be loyal and give him or her all the love and devotion you have to give and more. Take advice and admonition as golden offerings and proceed in confidence. Many benefits will come from their guidance on the path of dharma for a fruitful and fulfilling life.

A heavy burden falls upon the preceptor, too. He or she must produce results and continue to do so. Preceptors are not entertainers, content to be lauded or bowed down to in adulation. Rather, they must benefit their followers’ lives, lessen their karmic burdens and strengthen the family, hold marriages together, as well as seek out potential religious leaders and train them well. They must follow the karmas of each individual and each family year after year, and they must be there for devotees when needed most. They must demonstrate their śānti and bask in the bliss of attainment. They must be spirit, for spirit lives on.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 326: RAJA YOGA IN ACTION
Śiva’s monastics—āchāryas, swāmīs, yogīs and sādhakas—are precise, concentrated, serenely centered, eager to serve and tireless in every task, held back to rest only by others. Jai, they carry their yoga into action. Aum.

Lesson 326 – Merging with Śiva 

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

The Point Of Conception

The point of conception is the apex of creation. At what point do we conceive, and how do we create? Let’s expand our consciousness, really expand our consciousness, and begin to know that creation is merely recognizing what is already there—that there is nothing new; everything is within you and it is portrayed on the outside as you become aware that it is already created, finished, within you.

What makes the point of conception the apex of creation? It is the story of you. Expand your consciousness to take in the sun, the moon, the planets, the Earth, everyone. And when your limited consciousness focuses upon one thing, you say, “There is the sun, and in a few hours I will see the moon.” And in a few hours you do see the moon. You are the creator, but you only create to the lower realms of the mind. Everything is within you: the sun, the moon, the planets, all of the people functioning through all their different states of consciousness, all of the various manifestations of form. They are all within you.

As you become aware of one thing at a time, you are really creating it into the lower realms of your mind. You are translating it into the lower realms of your mind. Your recognition of what is is the way you create it to yourself. This is deep. This is in the realm of contemplation. And only in the realm of contemplation will you begin to conceive of it.

Those of you who have had the power enough to concentrate enough of the mind in order to contemplate should begin to be very godlike in your everyday life. You should work very, very hard to do each thing perfectly that you do in your conscious mind, to finish each job, and to have consideration for others at all times. That will take you into the next stages of contemplation.

When we become careless in our lower realms of the mind after having reached contemplation, we use that great God-power in a negative way and build great barriers within ourselves that hold us in the lower realms of the mind. But when we strive diligently to perfect devotion, which is bhakti, to perfect service, which is karma yoga, at all times—twenty-four hours a day the vigil is—then we release barriers, barriers that we are going to meet perhaps next year or the year after. We burn up and clean up karma that will come even in your next life. And you go from one stage of contemplation and become stable in the next stage of contemplation, until you begin to live on the very brink of the Absolute. And it’s on the brink of the Absolute that you can begin to realize that the point of conception is the very apex of creation. You realize all form, and then you realize formlessness.

Lesson 325 – Merging with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Being and Becoming

Out of the microcosm ever comes the macrocosm. Out of Paraśiva—which is timeless, causeless and formless—ever comes all form. This is the great mystery without a reason why. Out of pure consciousness ever comes the light which binds all form together in specific bondage, individualizing forms, souls, one from another. This is ever happening, as simultaneously struggling souls remove their bondage through the grace of God Śiva to come into Satchidānanda, later to be absorbed into Paraśiva. This, too, is a great mystery without a reason why.

The existence called Paraśiva pervades the infinite Satchidānanda, sustaining it just as the Divine Light of God Śiva’s mind pervades and sustains the gross forms of this world. Paraśiva does not create Satchidānanda, yet Satchidānanda is sustained because of the existence of nonexistence. Now, you might ask, “Why?” The answer is that this is the will of our great God Śiva.

Therefore, first we seek to gain an intellectual clarity as to the path we are on. This purified intellect gives a philosophical clarity but should not in any way be mistaken for attainment. In the technological age there are thousands who are intellectually clear as to the task at hand, how to obtain the objective, and they have the necessary skills to begin. They do not delude themselves that they have already begun or attained anything until failure has been many times encountered, that failure conquered and success achieved in its place. Thus, we draw a distinction between the seasoned yogī whose knowledge has its source in superconsciousness and the armchair Vedantist who often thinks his intellectual comprehension is some kind of advanced attainment. It is not. Peoples of the West have come too far in technology, too far in the understanding and use of the mind, too far in personal study of Vedānta to be impressed by this anymore.

The two perfections explain well the deep questions man asks himself, questions which bring forth far too few answers. Through meditation upon the two perfections inherent in the soul, we can penetrate the mystery of the oneness of man and God. Man and God are one, yet God Śiva has yet a third perfection, Maheśvara, the Primal Soul, already perfect and complete, whereas man’s soul body is still maturing, still evolving. One day, the soul body of man will merge with God Śiva in this third perfection. So, we see that man is both being and becoming. He is already perfect, for the essence of his soul, Paraśiva and Satchidānanda, exists eternally within him as him, having never been created. Yet, man is evolving, becoming, for his individual soul body, created by God Śiva, is not yet perfect, is still evolving through time, eventually to mature into the image and likeness of the Primal Soul and Creator, Maheśvara.

I might surprise you when I say that man’s soul is created and not created. True, the soul body of light was created by God Śiva Himself. Within this body of light and consciousness exist, without beginning or end, the two perfections of Paraśiva and Satchidānanda. We find the paradoxes of oneness and twoness, of being and becoming, of created and uncreated existence subtly delineated through an understanding of the three perfections of our great God Śiva.

Lesson 325 – Dancing with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

What Is the Symbolism of Śiva’s Dance?

ŚLOKA 15
The symbolism of Śiva Naṭarāja is religion, art and science merged as one. In God’s endless dance of creation, preservation, destruction and paired graces is hidden a deep understanding of our universe. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

BHĀSHYA
Naṭarāja, the King of Dance, has four arms. The upper right hand holds the drum from which creation is­sues forth. The lower right hand is raised in blessing, betokening preservation. The upper left hand holds a flame, which is destruction, the dissolution of form. The right leg, representing obscuring grace, stands upon Apasmārapurusha, a soul temporarily Earthbound by its own sloth, confusion and forgetfulness. The up­lifted left leg is revealing grace, which re­leases the ma­ture soul from bondage. The lower left hand gestures toward that holy foot in assurance that Śiva’s grace is the refuge for everyone, the way to liberation. The circle of fire rep­re­sents the cosmos and especially consciousness. The all-de­vouring form looming above is Ma­hā­kāla, “Great Time.” The cobra around Naṭarāja’s waist is kuṇḍalinī śakti, the soul-impelling cosmic power resident within all. Naṭarā­ja’s dance is not just a symbol. It is taking place within each of us, at the atomic level, this very mo­ment. The Āgamas proclaim, “The birth of the world, its maintenance, its destruction, the soul’s obscuration and liberation are the five acts of His dance.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 325 – Living with Śiva 

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Sustaining the Connection

A satguru doesn’t need a lot of words to transmit the spirit to another person; but the śishyas have to be open and be kept open. The little bit of spirit extends like a slender fiber, a thin thread, from the satguru to the śishya, and it is easily broken. A little bit more of that association adds another strand, and we have two threads, then three, then four. They are gradually woven together through service, and a substantial string develops between the guru and the śishya. More strings are created, and they are finally woven together into a rope strong enough to pull a cart. You’ve seen in India the huge, thick ropes that pull a temple chariot. That is the ultimate goal of the guru-śishya relationship.

Upon the connection between guru and śishya, the spirit of the paramparā travels, the spirit of the sampradāya travels. It causes the words that are said to sink deep. They don’t just bounce off the intellect; the message goes deep into the individual. Spiritual force doesn’t just happen. It’s a hand-me-down process, a process of transmission, just as the development of the human race didn’t just happen. It was a hand-me-down from many, many fathers and mothers and many, many reincarnations that brought us all here. Paramparā is a spiritual force that moves from one person to another. I am not talking about the modern idea of bestowing śakti power, where somebody gets a little jolt and pays a little money and that’s the end of the association with the teacher. Paramparā is like giving a devotee one end of a tiny silk thread. Now, if the devotee drops his end of the thread, the experiences are stopped and only words are left, just words, one word after another, another and another. The devotee then has to interpret the depth of the philosophy according to the depths of his inherent ignorance. What other measurement does he have? The relationship with the guru is a constant weaving in and out of one fiber of the thread added to another fiber, added to another fiber, added to another fiber, just like this khadi kavi robe we wear in our Order was woven. Each fiber is attached to another fiber, attached to another fiber, attached to another fiber, and finally we have a thread. Between the guru and śishya many threads are all woven together, and finally we have a firm rope that cannot be pulled apart or destroyed even by two people pulling against one another. That is sampradāya. That is paramparā. That is the magical power of the Nāthas.

As we look at this great line of satgurus—coming from Lord Śiva Himself through Nandinātha and countless ones before Nandinatha, to Rishi Tirumular and countless ṛishis after him to the Rishi of Bangalore, to Kadaitswami, Chellappaguru and Yogaswami—we see the same spiritual force flowing. We see an undaunted, rare succession of individuals who considered adversity as a boon from the Gods, wherein all the accumulated karmas to be wiped away come together in one place to be taken care of all at once. Nāthas don’t run from adversity; nor do they resent it. They take it within themselves in meditation and deal with it, dissolve it in the clear white light within themselves, every tiny little bit of it. They consider it a boon from the Gods that it all came at one time rather than strung out over a period of many years. The mysterious Nāthas have their own way of handling almost everything, and much of that is revealed in the Nandinātha Sūtras. These sūtras have within them, summarized in short stanzas, all the knowledge that’s within our catechism and creed, all the knowledge that’s in our monastic Holy Orders, all the knowledge embodied in our Śaiva culture, in our brahmacharya course, and all the other books and lessons we have published and distributed throughout the years. They give codes of behavior, conduct, ways of living, ways of moving, ways of thinking, as well as the basic core of the monistic Śaiva Siddhānta taught by our Kailāsa Paramparā for eons and eons of time.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 325: PURE VESSELS FOR THE DIVINE
My monastics strive to keep Lord Śiva foremost in their mind and heart, seeking pure emptiness, kāīf. Having mastered the Shūm-Tyēīf language of meditation, they are vessels for God’s gracious will. Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 324 – Living with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Continuity Of Spirit

Before books were invented, the traditional way of conveying information was through the spoken word. This is called sampradāya. Sampradāya, verbal teaching, was the method that all satgurus used. A satguru can only give his śishya as much as the śishya can hold in his mind at any one time. If the śishya comes with an empty cup, the cup is filled by the guru. But if the śishya comes with a cup that is already full, nothing more can be added by the guru.

Many satgurus work with their devotees in unseen ways. They have the ability to tune into the vibration of a devotee anywhere his physical body might be on the planet, feel how he is feeling and send blessings of protection and guidance. The guru-śishya system of training is personal and direct. Much is unspoken between them, so close is the mental attunement. The traditional observance of brahmacharya helps to stabilize this relationship.

An advanced śishya is one whose intuition is in absolute harmony with that of his satguru. This harmony does not occur in the beginning stages, however, when the devotee is probing the subject matter of the guru’s teachings for answers. Only after he has conquered the fluctuating patterns of the thinking mind does an inner flow of harmony begin to become apparent to both guru and śishya. The śishya is expected to cultivate his inner life as well as his outer life. The more sincere and consistent he is with his inner work and his inner friends—God, Gods and guru—the more safe and secure and blessed he will be. Your relationship with your guru is growing stronger even now as you come to better know yourself and proceed in your study of these daily lessons.

Hindu temples sustain Hinduism around the world. Scriptures keep us always reminded of the path we are on and the path we are supposed to be on, but only from the satguru can you get the spirit, the śakti, the sustaining spirit, to make it all come to life in you, to make the temple meaningful and to complement the scriptures with your own sight, your own third-eye sight. Otherwise, it’s just words.

Nāthas are not on the path of words. The Ṛishi wandered down from the Himalayas to Bangalore. What did he say? Nobody knows. Whom did he talk to? Nobody knows. Did he influence crowds of people? Perhaps, but he only had to influence one individual, Kadaitswami, to speak out to the world. Kadaitswami caught the spirit of the Rishi, who had caught the spirit of the previous ṛishi, the previous ṛishi and all the ones that preceded him. It is that spirit of sampradāya that makes the traditional teachings meaningful, that gives you the power to discriminate between what is real within those teachings and what is superfluous or just plain nonsense, that gives you the power to blend Siddhānta with Vedānta, Vedas with Āgamas.

The irreversible spirit of the guru carries through all of the śishyas. It is basically the only gift a guru can give—that sustaining spirit. He doesn’t have to give knowledge, because that has already been written down. He doesn’t have to build temples, because there are more than enough temples for everyone. The rare and precious gift that he can convey is the inner spirit of his religious heritage. That is his unique gift to the world.

Nāthas do not follow the way of words. Kadaitswami spoke to a lot of people. Who knows what he said? They didn’t have tape recorders in those days, and doubtless he never wrote anything down, but the spirit carried through him to Chellappaguru, who didn’t say an awful lot. He wasn’t following the way of words either. He spoke only divine essences of the philosophy. He didn’t write 3,000 verses like Rishi Tirumular did. Nor did he give lectures to crowds like Kadaitswami did. His spirit was passed on to Satguru Siva Yogaswami, who passed his spirit on to a lot of devotees.

We must remember that during the time of the British, all gurus had to keep a very low profile and that Yogaswami’s great work started to flourish publicly only after the British left Sri Lanka. He passed his spirit on to lots of devotees, including me. If I had not journeyed to the northern part of Sri Lanka and gone to Śiva temples, worshiped there and received initiation from Yogaswami, would I have returned to America and built a Śiva temple or helped found over fifty other Hindu temples scattered around the world? No. Would we have a monastic community? No. Would we have an international Saiva Siddhanta Church? No. Would we have a Himalayan Academy? No. Would we have a Hindu Heritage Endowment? No. Would we have a HINDUISM TODAY magazine? No. Would we have family missions all over the world? No. Would we be sitting here right now? No. Only because of the existence of one satguru in this venerable line of gurus, I caught the spirit; and through this spirit the words manifest, the activities manifest, the devotees maintain that straight path, the disciplines bear fruit, the inner sight comes, and after it comes, it stays. Without satgurus, we would only have temples and scriptures. Without satgurus, we wouldn’t have the spirit, and people would stop going to temples and stop reading the scriptures.

NANDINATHA SŪTRA 324: SELFLESS SERVICE LEADS TO SELF-MASTERY
Śiva’s monastic disciples regard themselves as the full-time slaves of Śiva, servants of the servants of the Lord. They are masters of mind, body and emotion, divine rulers of their instinctive and intellectual forces. Aum.

Lesson 324 – Merging with Śiva

Posted on by Himalayan Academy
Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

Form and Formlessness

We must caution each and all not to think of the external mind as God, which would be a self-deception. Man’s personality or individuality is not God—neither is the ego, the intellect or the emotions. Though the unenlightened sometimes make this mistake, I believe you will readily ferret out the difference. Paraśiva, the Self God, lies resident at the core of man’s existence, far beyond the reach of the external phases of consciousness; yet these exist only because That exists, the timeless, causeless, spaceless God Śiva beyond the mind.

The other perfection inherent in the soul of man is Satchidānanda—Being, Consciousness and Bliss. When mind force, thought force and the vṛittis, or waves of the mind, are quiescent, the outer mind subsides and the mind of the soul shines forth. We share the mind of God Śiva at this superconscious depth of our being. In entering this quiescence, one first encounters a clear white light within the body, but only after sufficient mastery of the mind has been attained through the disciplined and protracted practices of yoga.

Hearing the vīṇā, the mṛidaṅga, the tambūra and all the psychic sounds is the awakening of the inner body, which, if sādhana is pursued, will finally grow and stabilize, opening the mind to the constant state of Satchidānanda, where the holy inner mind of God Śiva and our soul are one. I hold that Satchidānanda—the light and consciousness ever permeating form, God in all things and everywhere—is form, though refined form, to be sure. Satchidānanda is pure form, pure consciousness, pure blessedness or bliss, our soul’s perfection in form. Paraśiva is formless, timeless, causeless, spaceless, as the perfection of our soul beyond form.

Though it is supreme consciousness, Satchidānanda is not the ultimate realization, which lies beyond consciousness or mind. This differs from popular interpretations of present-day Vedānta, which makes these two perfections virtually synonymous. Modern Vedānta scholars occasionally describe Satchidānanda almost as a state of the intellect, as though the perfected intellect, through knowledge, could attain such depths, as though these depths were but a philosophical premise or collection of beliefs and insights. This is what I call “simplistic Vedānta.”

To understand how these two perfections differ, visualize a vast sheath of light which permeates the walls of this monastery and the countryside around us, seeping in and through all particles of matter. The light could well be called formless, penetrating, as it does, all conceivable forms, never static, always changing. Actually, it is amorphous, not formless. Taking this one step farther, suppose there were a “something” so great, so intense in vibration that it could swallow up light as well as the forms it permeates. This cannot be described, but can be called Paraśiva—the greatest of all of God Śiva’s perfections to be realized. This, too, can be experienced by the yogī, in nirvikalpa samādhi. Thus, we understand Paraśiva as the perfection known in nirvikalpa samādhi, and Satchidānanda as the perfection experienced in savikalpa samādhi. By the word formless I do not describe that which can take any form or that which is of no definite shape and size. I mean without form altogether, beyond form, beyond the mind which conceives of form and space, for mind and consciousness, too, are form.

Lesson 324 – Dancing with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

What Is the Nature of Life for Śaivites?

ŚLOKA 14
To the Śaivite Hindu, all of life is sacred. All of life is religion. Thus, Śaivite art is sacred art, Śaivite music is devotional music, and the Śaivite’s business is not only his livelihood, it is his service to man and God. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Each Śaivite is unique in his or her quest, yet all seek the same things in life: to be happy and secure, loved and ap­­preciated, creative and useful. Śaivism has an established culture which fulfills these es­sential human wants and helps us understand the world and our place in it. To all devotees it gives guidance in the qualities of character so necessary in spiritual life: patience, compassion, broadmindedness, hum­­ility, industriousness and de­vo­tion. Śai­vism centers around the home and the temple. Mon­astic life is its core and its power. Family life is strong and precious. Śaivism possesses a wealth of art and ar­chi­tecture, traditions of music, art, drama and dance, and a treasury of philosophy and scholarship. Śaivite tem­ples provide wor­ship services daily. Scriptures give ethical guidelines. Satgurus offer ad­vanced spir­itual initiation. These three—temples, scriptures and sat­­gurus—are our pillars of faith. The Vedas implore, “O learned people, may we with our ears listen to what is beneficial, may we see with our eyes what is beneficial. May we, engaged in your praises, enjoy with firm limbs and sound bodies, a full term of life dedicated to God.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.

Lesson 323 – Dancing with Śiva

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Recording: Gurudeva’s cloned voice

How Does Śaivism Stay Contemporary?

ŚLOKA 13
Inner truths never change, but outer forms of practice and observance do evolve. Śaivism seeks to preserve its mystical teachings while adapting to the cultural, social and technological changes of each recurrent age. Aum.

BHĀSHYA
Śaivism is an orthodox religion, conservative in its ways and yet pliant and understanding. It is simultaneously the most de­manding spiritual path and the most forgiving. Śaivites have persisted through many ages through successfully adapt­ing work, service and skills according to the times while in­ter­nal­izing worship and holding firmly to the eternal values. The outer form of service or oc­cupation does not change the spiritual search. Be he a skilled farmer, factory worker, village merchant, com­pu­ter programmer or corporate executive, the Śai­vite is served well by his religion. Śaivism has all of the facilities for the education of hu­mankind back to the Source. Each futuristic age does not reflect a difference in the Śai­vite’s relationship with his family, kula guru, teacher, satguru, Gods or God in his daily religious life. The Śaiva Dhar­ma: it is now as it always was. The Vedas implore: “O self-luminous Divine, re­move the veil of ignorance from before me, that I may behold your light. Reveal to me the spirit of the scriptures. May the truth of the scrip­tures be ever present to me. May I seek day and night to realize what I learn from the sages.” Aum Namaḥ Śivāya.