28 - Mental Worship of Shiva 

Nandin said: 

1-2. The fiery, solar and the lunar180 disc shall be thought of within the heart. Above that the trio of the Guņas and the Ātmans shall be conceived. Above it, the devotee shall meditate upon and worship the lord in both the aspects with and without attributes with half his body taken over by his beloved. 

180. amrutam- somam chandrarūpam ST, lunar orb. 

3-4. Since there are many objects to think upon, the thinker shall not think of anything exept the following. The meditator shall conceive no distinction between the object and the means of meditation; otherwise, (i.e. if he thinks of anything other than these) knowledge does not arise in him. 

5-6. The word Puruşha is derived thus: puri shete (he who lies in the body). He who worships the deity, the object of worship by means of meditation, is known as yajamāna. Dhyeya (the object of méditation) is the lord himself. Dhyana is the art of thinking. Niruku (bliss) the fruit of dhyāna. One who knows about this attains the ultimate reality which is the substratum of Pradhāna and Puruşha. 

7-10. Here the supreme lord, the object of meditation, is the Twenty-sixth principle, the meditator (jīva)181 is the twenty fifth, the avyakta or pradhāna is the twenty-fourth. The seven Principles constitute mahat, ahamkāra, and five tanmatras. T'he organs of action are five, as also the organs of sense; then there is the mind and the five elements. Thus Shiva is the twenty-sixth principle. He alone is the creator and sustainer. He is greater than Brahma. He has created Brahmā. He is one who is above and greater than the universe, and is the universe itself. 

181. jivātmā, the individual soul, the enjoyer of the fruits of the world-tree (Cf. ebhih sampaditam bhunkte puruṣhaḥ panchaviṁshakaḥ. Matsya 3.27.), constitutes the twenty-fifth category. He is also called 'bhoktã puruşhah', 'bhoktă suparnah' and he is controlled by the will of Ishvara (Cf. Ishvareccha vašhah so'pi jivåtma kathyate budhaih). The latter is called şhadvimšhaka Shiva--the twenty-sixth category who though transcendent is not competent to bestow grace. (Cf, şhadvamshakamaniśhvaram 1.71.109). 

11. Just as children are not born without their parents, so also the three worlds are not born without Shiva and his consort. 

Sanatkumāra said: 

12-13. If the great lord who is the supreme power and the supreme soul is himself the doer how can he be an agent who causes activity of the individual souls? But the supreme lord has been mentioned by you as eternal, enlightened and unqualitative.182 How can he then bestow liberation? If he is without attributes how can he function? 

182. nishkalaḥ---devoid of attributes, hence passive or inactive, but who imparis impetus to Time-Kāla who creates the universe.

Nandin said: 

14. It is Kāla (Time) that evolves everything. Lord Shiva evolves the Kāla always. When the mind devoid of qualities is set on lord Shiva, lord Shiva reveals His true, attributeless nature.183 

183. The nind too when stabilized by concentration becomes inactive (nişhkriya) as this helps in the emancipation of jiva. Cf. ST.

But, as a matter of fact, the terms-bondage and release are illusory and so are creation and dissolution. Ch. Pañchadašhi as quoted in ST. 

15-17. The universe appears to be existent by his very activity. The eight184 forms of the lord represent the empirical universe. Without the five elements -ether, earth, wind, fire and water and without the priest, the Sun and the moon, the world has no existence. On consideration, it is evident that the gross world consisting of the mobile and immobile beings is the gross body of Rudra. These eight are the cosmic forms of the lord. 

184. The eight forms of lord Shiva constitute the five gross material elements, the soul, the Sun and the moon. Each stands in relation to its constituent as follows: 

(i) Sharva- earth (ii) Bhava-water, (iii) Rudra--fire, (iv) Ugra---wind, (v) Bhima--ether, (vi) Pashupati--soul, (vii) Iśhäna --gun, and (viii) Mahadeva-moon. 

18-19. O excellent brahmins the sages declare that the subtle body of the lord is inexpressibile. (The Vedas declare) "From him the words????? after failing to reach him along with the mind. He who realizes the bliss of the Brahman eschews fear from any quarter".185 Hence, after realizing the bliss of the pinaka-bearing lord, no one need be afraid. 

185. Cf. TA. 8.4.1. TU 2.41,9.1. Brahman is here identical with Shiva. 

20. After perceiving through their imagination that the elegances186 of Rudra are present everywhere, the Sages who perceive the truth say, "Everything is Rudra." 

186. Rudrasya vibhūtayah. The vibhūties of Rudra comprise ruta, satya ctc. Cf. rutam satyam param brahma, quoted in ST. 

21-22. By making incessant obeisance in Brahma one's prestige is increased. All this is Brahman; everything is lord Rudra. Puruşha is the great lord Shiva is the supreme lord. Thus the lord has been specified. Mediation is the sole thought about him. 

23. O sage of good, holy rites, he should be thought upon in fourfold187 manner and perceived. He, the cause of worldly existence, is the world itself. He is the cause of liberation. He is the greatest ecstasy. 

187. Chaturvyűha: Four vyuhas constitute prāņa, manas, vijñāna and änanda and exclude the gross annamaya kośha. ST. offers an alternative explanation: yad vã dhyeya-dhyana-yajamāna-prayojanarūpaiḥ chaturvyűhaiḥ. But according to Linga puräna, the chaturvyūha consists of (1) existence (samsára), cause of existence (samsārahetu), cause of emancipation (mokşhahetu) and emancipation (nirvruti). 

24-27. The four-arrayed path is prescribed for a practising yogin. Thought is counted as manifold. If it is centred in one place it is called Sunişhthā;188 if centred in Rudra it is called Raudri; if centred in Indra Aindri; if in Soma Saumya; if in Nārāyaṇa or in the Sun or in the fire it is called after those names. If the devotee fixes in his mind in both ways that he is I and I am he that thought is called Brāhmi. O brahmins, thus should a devotee think of this universe - both mobile and immobile--as identical with Brahman.

188. Sunişhthā--knowledge pertaining to Rudra (raudri chintă) that releases jiva from the so-called bondage of birth and death.  

28-29. Keeping the goal in his mind, the devotee shall eschew the thought of division between the mobile and imobile,189 as also between what should be eschewed and what should not be eschewed, as also between what is possible and what is not possible of achievement and what should be done and what should not be done. He shall also remain satiated and contented. Such a man's contemplation is the real one pertaining to Brahman and not otherwise. Thus in due order the mental worship of the lord has been recounted. 

189.charáchara-vibhagam—Jagadbrahmarüpam ST.-distinction between Brahma and the mundane oildw. 

30-33. Those who carry out this sort of mental worship should also be adored by means of obeisance, etc. Even if they are hideous and deformed, these expounders of Brahman should not be censured. They should not be subjected to scrutiny by a discerning person. Those who censure them are narrow minded persons who will become miserably unhappy as those sages of old who censured the lord in the Dārukā forest. The knowers of the Brahman who are beyond the bounds of castes and stages of life should always be served and bowed to by the persons devoted to the rigid discipline of castes and stages of life.