The Book of Shiva

The Book of Shiva

Product ID: 8742

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Author: Namita Gokhale
Publisher: Penguin/Viking
Year: 2001-10-01
Language: English
Pages: 130
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0670049069

Description

Who is Shiva? Why does he roam the world as a naked ascetic covered with ash? What was the tandava? What is the story behind the worship of the linga and what vision of the world does it signify? Namita Gokhale examines these questions and many others.

Shiva: Destroyer and Protector, Supreme Ascetic and Lord of the Universe. He is Ardhnarishwara, half man and half woman. He is Neelakantha, who drank poison to save the three worlds—and yet, when crazed with grief at the death of Sati, set about destroying them. Shiva holds within him the answers to some of the greatest dilemmas that have perplexed mankind.

Who is Shiva? Why does he roam the world as a naked ascetic covered with ash? What was the tandava? What is the story behind the worship of the linga and what vision of the world does it signify? Namita Gokhale examines these questions and many others that lie within the myriad stories about Shiva. Even as she unravels his complexities, she finds a philosophy and world-view that is terrifying and yet life-affirming—an outlook that is to many the essence of Indian thought.

Contents

Introduction

The Manifestations of Shiva

Shiva as Mahakala

Tandava, the Great Dance of Shiva

Shiva-Shakti: The Reconciliation of Male-Female Polarities

The Diving Family of Shiva

Swallowing the World Poison

Popular Legends and Scriptural Tales

The Erotic and Ascetic Aspect of Shiva

Shiva in the Daruvana

The Worship of Shiva

The Twelve Jyotirlingas

Schools of Shiva Consciousness

Satyam Shivam Sundaram

Songs of Shiva

Bibliography