{"id":802,"date":"2026-07-28T13:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T23:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/?p=802"},"modified":"2025-08-03T17:00:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T03:00:02","slug":"lesson-108-dancing-with-siva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/lesson-108-dancing-with-siva\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesson 108 \u2013 Dancing with \u015aiva"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/DwS-Lesson-108.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Recording: Gurudeva&#8217;s cloned voice<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Is the Nature of Image Worship?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u015aLOKA 108<br>We worship God \u015aiva and the Gods who by their infinite powers spiritually hover over and indwell the image, or m\u016brti, which we revere as their temporary body. We commune with them through the ritual act of p\u016bj\u0101. Aum.<br><br>BH\u0100SHYA<br>The stone or metal Deity images are not mere symbols of the Gods; they are the form through which their love, power and blessings flood forth into this world. We may liken this mystery to our ability to communicate with others through the telephone. We do not talk to the telephone; rather we use a telephone as a means of communication with another person who is perhaps thousands of miles away. Without the telephone, we could not converse across such distances; and without the sanctified m\u016brti in the temple or shrine we cannot easily commune with the Deity. His vibration and presence can be felt in the image, and He can use the image as a temporary physical-plane body or channel. As we progress in our worship, we begin to adore the image as the Deity\u2019s physical body, for we know that He is actually present and conscious in it during p\u016bj\u0101, aware of our thoughts and feelings and even sensing the puj\u0101r\u012b\u2019s gentle touch on the metal or stone. The Vedas exclaim, \u201cCome down to us, Rudra, who art in the high mountains. Come and let the light of thy face, free from fear and evil, shine upon us. Come to us with thy love.\u201d Aum Nama\u1e25 \u015aiv\u0101ya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Is the Nature of Image Worship? \u015aLOKA 108We worship God \u015aiva and the Gods who by their infinite powers spiritually hover over and indwell the image, or m\u016brti, which we revere as their temporary body. We commune with them through the ritual act of p\u016bj\u0101. Aum. BH\u0100SHYAThe stone or metal Deity images are not <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/lesson-108-dancing-with-siva\/\">READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dancing-with-siva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5296,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802\/revisions\/5296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}