Parvati
Le Seigneur Shiva est l'incarnation de l'Esprit Saint, le Seigneur de l'Amour dont la danse cosmique tourbillonnante dissipe l'ignorance et les forces de l'anti-amour. L'action de Shiva se cristallise dans le monde de la forme par l'intermédiaire de sa Shakti, ou contrepartie féminine, qui apparaît sous diverses formes.
En tant que Parvati (Fille de la Montagne), fille du dieu Himalaya, elle est la mère et l'épouse bienfaisante et douce. Son union avec Shiva est le prototype du mariage idéal. Femme belle et gracieuse, elle est souvent représentée avec Shiva dans des scènes domestiques ou assise à ses côtés lors de discours. Shiva et Parvati sont parfois représentés avec leur fils Skandha. Skandha est également connu sous le nom de Karttikeya, le dieu de la guerre, et est identifié dans une Upanishad au dieu-sage que nous appelons Sanat Kumara.
Selon la mythologie hindoue, lorsque la belle Parvati n'a pas réussi à gagner l'amour de Shiva, elle a mis de côté ses bijoux, a revêtu l'habit d'un ermite et s'est retirée dans une montagne pour méditer sur Shiva et pratiquer des austérités. Après qu'elle ait embrassé la vie de renonçant pendant un certain temps, Shiva l'a finalement acceptée comme épouse.
Hindus believe that Shiva lives on the summit of Mount Kailas. He is pictured there both as a solitary ascetic and with his Shakti, Parvati. John Snelling, in his book The Sacred Mountain, recounts how Parvati contributed to the origin of Shiva’s third eye:
Legend describes [Parvati] playfully covering her Lord’s eyes as he sat in meditation on a peak of Himalaya. Instantly all light and life were extinguished in the universe until, out of compassion for all beings, the god opened his third eye, which blazed like a new sun. So intense was its blazing that it scorched the mountains and forests of [the Himalayas] to oblivion. Only when he saw that the daughter of the mountain was properly contrite did he relent and restore her father [who is the mountain] to his former estate.[1]
This legend shows Shiva as the Destroyer. The opening of his third eye represents the opening of the eye of knowledge that destroys ignorance. Swami Karapatri explains:
The frontal eye, the eye of fire, is the eye of higher perception. It looks mainly inward. When directed outward, it burns all that appears before it. It is from a glance of this third eye that ... the gods and all created beings are destroyed at each of the periodical destructions of the universe.[2]
Some artistic representations of Shiva show him as half-man and half-woman. According to legend, Shiva was determined that there be no separation between himself and his shakti, and he therefore decreed that his right side be Shiva and his left be Parvati.
Shiva says:
Unto Parvati, then, I commend you, for she, my consort, has much to teach you. And when you have learned from her, go then to Durga! Go then to Kali! Go then to each and every manifestation of the Divine Mother, for you cannot learn too much from these incarnations of the Divine Mother and others, beloved.
For it is the Divine Mother who bears the sword, who places it in your hand, and it is the Divine Mother who teaches you how to triumph in all things in the Matter cosmos, over every detail of life and of the larger concerns of solar systems and lifewaves abiding on this earth.[3]
See also
Sources
Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 34, no. 62, December 1, 1991.
Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Masters and Their Retreats, s.v. “Shiva, Parvati, Durga and Kali.”
- ↑ John Snelling, The Sacred Mountain, rev. and enl. ed. (London: East-West Publications, 1990), p. 11.
- ↑ Swami Karapatri, “Sri Siva tattva,” Siddhanta, II, 1941–42, 116, quoted in Alain Danielou, The Gods of India: Hindu Polytheism (New York: Inner Traditions International, 1985), p. 214.
- ↑ Shiva and Parvati, “I AM Shiva Everywhere,” Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 36, no. 39, September 12, 1993.