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Siva’s vehicle is the bull, nandi, which means “giving joy.”
Nandi is fullof joy. He symbolizes controlled virility and devotion.
As such he is the symbol of proper or pure (color white) dharma which
brings order both to society and to the universe. Nandi is supported
by four legs which are: austerities, purity of body and mind,
compassion and clinging to truth.
Siva’s drum symbolizes the primordial sound or origional vibration
from which all other patterns of vibration that make up creation are
derived. Some traditions use the devotional symbol of God speaking
creation into existence. Here Siva beats creation into existence on
his drum, devotionally symbolized as the sound of “dama dama dama
dama.” This sound ever reverberates through the cosmos, holding
creationin manifestation.
Three lines on the forehead
These represent the three gunas, the primordial qualities which
underlie all manifestation. These are purity or pure consciousness,
energy or activity, and inertia. Everything in creation is made of a
particular mixture of these three origional qualities. The three
lines appearing on the forehead indicate that he has mastered the
three gunas and thus is master of the whole of creation, which is
nothing more than a mixture of these gunas. It is in the center of
the forehead where the three principle energy channels or nadis meet.
When the energy and consciousness (conscious energy) is centered here
one transcends the gunas.
Mala beads are used in the devotional repetition of the divine name.
They thus represent devotion, without which it is not possible to
transcend the ego. This is not a sentimental or emotional devotion,
but an interior and focused devotional surrender that comes from
continual washing one’s self in the divine name until one ever lives
within its spell.
The moon is the vessel of soma, the nectar of bliss, the nectar of
immortality. It is the soma chakra, which in Siva is ever open,
conferring on him immortal bliss.
Siva’s right hand is raised in a gesture of blessing granting
fearlessness. Fearlessness must be accepted if one is to tread the
path that leads beyond death to the abode of Truth.
The River Ganges flowing from his hair
The river Ganges here is the pure causal waters of purifying knowledge
which cleanse from ignorance and bring enlightenment. As it flows in
the causal world its purifying force is so great it would instantly
remove all impediments to realization, destroying in the process the
earth itself. Siva in his boundless grace catches the river of
Truth-consciousness in his hair lowering it gently to earth so it
nourishes the course of evolution of consciousness through its
purifying action.
Snakes, naga, represent the serpentine energy, Kundaline Shakti, which
bringscreation into manifestation at the end of each night of
Brahman, and whichlies coiled and sleeping under the gunas at the base
of the spine in un-awakened humans. Awakening her from the sleep of
her own gunas (the primordial qualities which underlie all
manifestation) energizes the spinal chakras, those subtle transformers
which manifest all human experience.
When the chakras are sufficiently purified, Kundalini Shakti, the
female aspect of Siva, can safely leave her sleep at the base of the
spine and dance her way up the subtle spine through the chakras toward
her divine consort, Siva. The whole universe, from the lowest and
darkest to the most resplendent, is hidden in these inner churches or
meeting places or doors between manifestation and the different
aspects of Sivas dama dama dama from his primordial drum.
This dama dama dama is the origional vibration that sturctures and
brings to manifestation all patterns of vibration. On the one side
of the chakra, the side of manifestation, is what we call the world
of the senses, the world of outer experience. On the other side of
the chakras are the patterns of thought energy from Siva’s drum that
underlie and sturcture the outer universe. Kundalini Shakti’s journey
from the base of the spine through these chakras to Siva’s abode on
Mount Kailas at the crown of the head is thus a journey across the
whole universe.
When she joins Siva in the high country, the higher chakras, she is
known as the Goddess Parvati. They are ever one. They only appear
different through expression. The naga around Siva’s neck indicate
his mastery of the primordial energy of Kundaline Shakti and his
having it raised from its sleep under the gunas to Its full expression
within and beyond the chakras.
The sun is a symbol of Self-knowledge, perfect awareness of the Self
as the Atman, the supreme reality, the Self hidden within the outer
appearances of the ego, self-conscious- ness, sense consciousness and so
forth. The radiant sun behind Siva’s head shows him as living in
complete and constant awareness of the Supreme Reality as his Self.
The tiger skin represents the mind. Siva sitting on the tiger skin ind
icates that he has both mastered the mind and transcended it.
Siva’s trident, trishula, not only symbolizes his rule over the
totality of manifestation which is ever divided by his trident into
trinities:
three divisions of time - past, present, future;
three part cosmic cycle - creation, preservation, desruction;
three primordial qualities - purity, activity, inertia;
three worlds - physical, astral, causal;
three states of consciousness - waking, dreaming, deep dreamless sleep;
three divisions of mind - conscious, subconscious, unconscious;
three chains of bondage - attachment, repulsion, ignorance;
three principle energy channels in the subtle body: ida, pingala,
sushumna;
three psychological states: pleasure (happiness), pain, (unhappiness),
boredom,
three aspects of consciousness - feeling, knowing, doing but the power
to destroy our ignorance with the triple power of Sat, Chit, Ananda:
absolute being,purity or pure, unconditioned consciousness, and bliss.
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