As I Know: The Lord of the Mountains – Shiv Purana: 150

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Grandeur of goddess Parvati (also called Shiva) and lord Shiva and the delusory potency they exercise…the male and female appear separate, but they work in unison and so are one and one only … the monk expounds the principle and knowledge of Pasupati, the great lord and the destroyer of sins

After he learnt about the murtis of lord Shiva, Krishna wished to know about real nature of the great lord and goddess Parvati. She wanted to know the male and female characteristic of a being and lord’s role. The great monk Upamanyu happily elucidated the glory of Shiva and Parvati. The entire universe is a tiny portion of the glorious brilliance of god and goddess and so Shiva is Shakti and Shakti is Shiva. Some created beings are conscious – sudha and para – cita, and some are acita–asudha and apara – the unconscious and these continue to wonder around in the world.

The lord is ‘Shiva and Shiva’ of the cita and the acita. The universe is under the control of Shiva and Shakti. Shiva and Shakti or Shiva and Shiva are the identical. They derive radiance from each other. Singly they do not carry any power. They are source of worldly pleasures and joys and show path to salvation to devotees. Shakti is solitary form of cita and it creates as Shiva wills. Shakti unites with Shiva-tattva, becomes the cause of creation, and undergoes different transformations and finally, the lord Sadashiva comes out of a dot. Sadashiva gives birth to Maheshwara and from him Sudhavidya, the deity of speech takes shape. 

With the strength of infusion of infinite Maya – the delusory potency creates Kaal, Niyati, Kalaa and vidya. Later, three gunas, the inexpressible gunas take different functions. Three gunas – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas pervade the entire universe, he told. Shakti of Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma and Indra are Raudri, Vaisnavi, Brahmani and Aindri respectively. As such, Shakti in different images permeates the worlds and Kaala the greatest potency of the atma, the soul is para shakti – the power beyond that obeys the lord and creates the world and created beings. 

In the form of knowledge and wisdom, Shakti is buddhi that determines the cause and objective. Shakti permeates each created being, causes, effects and implications. Therefore, monk Upamanyu continued to tell Krishna about the glory and magnificence of Shiva and Shakti and their numerous images that guide, instruct and determine the mobile and immobile worlds – the created beings and as such the images of varied gunas continue to resolve and direct the worlds, and so the lord is the creator, the preserver and the destroyer. 

He told that all men are identical with Shiva and women carry the image of goddess Gouri, Maheswari and so hold the divine potency of the lord. Each word, act, feeling and experience of sound, taste and fragrance, and direction embodies and filters through the image and spirit of Shiva and Shiva. They are the listeners and the speakers for they exist in all created beings and all beings live in them. Thus, Shiva is the house, the divine abode of all individual souls – the male and female components, the livings and non-livings, he told Krishna. If Shiva is the image of masculine beings, goddess symbolises womanly beings. 

The amount of power that living beings hold is identical with the lords who bestow such power and wisdom and here, one must know the intensity of gunas that determine fate of different beings – the pasu and pasas, for he is mighty Pauspati, the monk told. Monk told Krishna of the limitation of his intellect and added that it was impossible to describe the glory and magnificent stature of the great lord. However, he had tried to dwell on the magnificence of the great lord. To elucidate the innate nature of the lord – Shiva and Shiva is difficult but still he had tried to speak about the secret. 

The Vedas clearly direct that the wisdom and knowledge of the great lord should be imparted to devotees of pure hearts and none else. Shiva’s essence – the Vibhuti is the treasure of devotees, he told and so one attains liberation. Now, on request from the son of Yadus Krishna, he talks of the Pasupati principle – the real image and its analysis and if a devotee – jiva seeks shelter at the feet of lord (Shiva and Parvati-Shiva) it liberates him. 

He continued to elucidate the principle and knowledge of Pasupati, the great lord, the destroyer of sins. The entire created world is body of the great lord but created beings do not know because they – pasus are in bondages – pasas. He is changeless, without beginning or death and he is the image of Parabrahma. Vidya-chetna (consciousness) and avidya (insentience) are forms of Brahma. Shiva is the lord of sat and asat or ksara (living beings) and aksara – deathless but he is beyond these. He is the cause, the form of universal and the individual also, and the cause of them – the samasti (the un-manifest or imperceptible) and vyasti, the manifest. 

He is the lord, the unborn and called Pradhana – purusa, the image of kaal the cause, a guide, the lord of guides and creator of all. He is Atman of Virat, the Hiranyagarbha, the image of universe is virat, the parampurusa – the Supreme, and the cause of the worlds Brahma and virat is the cosmic form, the monk tried to explain in different words. 

He is the cause, the action, the effect and the great calculator and the intellect and that is why he is Atma of the awakened and of a man of dreams and he is beyond gunas. Many tell that he has existence and other understand that he is sans worldly existence. Still others attribute positive and negative qualities to him e.g., they think he is free and in bondages, gentle and harsh, active and inactive, sleeping and awake, and still beyond these characteristics. He is in motion and still immobile and he is the word and the sound and still he is beyond. 

He is the wisdom and the knowledge and he is beyond. Therefore, inherent and true form remains a mystery, for none can easily define or understand. Only realisation of the ancient, the primeval lord grants deliverance and liberation from bondages – pasas. As soon as the seer, the visionary, the knower of future or the divine soul comes to know about the creator, the lord, the cause of causes, the divine purusa and the origin of Brahma, he discards and abandons all virtues or punyas and sins and attains equality or unity with the great lord Shiva.

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