8 January 2010

Shiva Divine Consciousness

By Sri Sathya Sai Baba


“Who is Shiva?” Divine Consciousness which pervades all living beings is none other than Shiva. This Divine Consciousness permeates not only human beings, but all other creatures. Shiva-consciousness is all-pervading. “With hands, feet, eyes, head, mouth and ears pervading everything, He permeates the entire Universe.”

All that we witness is Shiva Consciousness; nothing else. Shiva does not mean a particular form with matted hair and tiger skin. Wherever we look and whichever form we come across – whether a child or an elderly person, whether a woman or a man, in every form Shiva Consciousness is resplendent.

How can you describe the all-pervading Shiva-consciousness or limit it to a particular time and place? God is described by different people in diverse ways depending on their imagination and understanding. But the nameless, formless God is omnipresent and all-pervading








Who can describe such Divinity? There is only one sign for Divinity, that is, Consciousness. In whichever form this Divine Consciousness permeates, it will assume that form – it may be the form of a dog, a crow, a crane or a human being.

All that you witness in this objective world is a manifestation of Shiva. It pervades the three worlds; earth, space and nether world and exists in the three periods of time; past, present and future. It is indescribable.

Man today searches for God everywhere, not understanding that he himself is an Embodiment of Divine Atma.

One has to realise Divinity by cultivating love for God. It is only love that can bind God. Through such Divine Love, the oneness of God has to be realised. If the attributeless God has to be described, the description would be “One without a second, eternal, pure, unchanging, witness to all functions of the intellect, beyond one’s imagination and beyond the three conditions (gunas).”

The best sadhana is to realise unity in Divinity and worship God as such. “To see the One in all you see.”

[artist: Dennis McCambridge]

3 comments:

chandra prakash said...

I agree that Shiva is considered as inner consciousness in the human being because of having analyzing capabilities. Other living objects may not have thinking and analyzing capacity therefore do not think about GOD the Devine power.

recumbentrider said...

Namaste, chandra.

Sometimes I wonder if our 'thinking and analyzing capacity' prevents many of us from seeing, hearing, and feeling God, especially that part of Him that is a part of us. I think most of us need to use mantras during just to stop the constant ramblings of our 'highly developed' minds so that we can experience the God that is our true Selves. I have a feeling that other living things that lack (what we consider to be) our 'higher reasoning' ability are aware of and feel the presence of God with a clarity that we may never know, and are in a state of grace that we can only reach through great effort, if at all.

Meenakshi Ammal said...

Sri Sathya Sai Baba is my Sadguru and I was fortunate to be able to spend a number of years at his Ashram when he was in good and robust health. Although he could access any and all information he himself wasn't an intellectual. He worked directly from the spiritual heart.

Ramana Maharshi himself said that all his teachings could be encapsulated in his small book of "Who Am I?". Paramhamsa Ramakrishna said that all the teachings of the Sastras could be encapsulated in the Bhagavad Gita. All the Wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita in the Gayatri Mantra and all the truths of the Gayatri Mantra in the Pranava Om.

Even the wisdom mystic Voltaire declares, "the heart has its reasons that reason does not know."