The Nature Of God Śiva
The most important teaching of God Śiva is that He has three perfections. He is not only timeless, formless and spaceless. That Absolute Reality, Paraśiva, is but one of God Śiva’s perfections. He also has an all-pervasive form which flows through all things—Satchidānanda. He pervades all form. There is no place that Śiva is not. And He has yet another perfection, which is a golden body of light in the Third World, a perfect body in which He is our Lord and Creator, the most wonderful and loving and perfect Being we can imagine. In the temple, when we invoke God Śiva, He comes in this golden body of light and blesses the people. He can see you. He can hear your prayers. He has created all the souls on this planet and all other planets in our universe, our holy scriptures tell us.
God Śiva is in all things and everywhere simultaneously, at every point in time. And yet, Śiva as Maheśvara, the Divine Dancer, Naṭarāja, has a body not unlike yours or mine, a body in which He can talk, a body in which He can think, a body in which He can see you and you can see Him, a body with legs, a body with arms. In this body He dances the eternal dance. I had a vision, once, of Śiva Naṭarāja dancing. I could hear the bells on His ankles. I could see His feet and legs. He is a beautiful dancer, and He dances in the Third World.
God Śiva is so close to us. He is closer than our breathing, nearer to us than our hands or feet. Yes, He is the very essence of our soul, and yet He has a body just like ours that lives in the Third World. In this body of light He can come into the inner sanctum of the temple, and He can look at us, and we can feel His śakti, His power and presence. He is our great God, the ruler of this universe.
Sometimes we hear the misconception that if you worship God Śiva He will take everything away from you. That is not true. That is anti-Śaivite propaganda. It is not true at all. God Śiva gives you everything, because He is the universal God described in the Vedas as the Life of your life. This unfavorable propaganda, which exists primarily in the north of India, but elsewhere, too, postulates that Śiva is only Rudra, the Destroyer. It makes people afraid of Śiva. There is never a reason to fear Śiva. He is a God of love, of compassion for all He has created.
Nothing has ever been destroyed by God Śiva but that He creates, constantly changes the form of and absorbs back to Himself His creations. For is not the ultimate absorption, after eons of time, the ultimate destruction of what was once created? This is the goal, is it not, for all to merge in oneness with our God Śiva? We are not destroyed by doing this. We are fulfilled! He does not take anything away from us, but that which would harm us. God Śiva takes from us greed and gives abundance. God Śiva takes from us lust and gives contentment. God Śiva takes from us anger and gives love. God Śiva takes from us jealousy and gives self-confidence and security. God Śiva is an ever-fulfilling God.
NANDINATHA SŪTRA 311: AVOIDING THE ADVICE OF PSYCHICS
My devotees do not counsel with trance mediums, clairvoyants, past- and future-life readers or psychic mentors. Nor do they consult astrologers or palmists other than those approved by their preceptor. Aum.