“ Love of Shiva ‘s feet eradicates bad karma,

Love of Shiva’s feet grants you the clarity of mind ,

Love of Shiva’s feet imbues the heart with gladness,

Love of Shiva’s feet is consciousness itself."

-Natchintanai         

   

            

 
The Hindu tradition perceives the existence of cyclical nature of the universe and everything within it. There are many theories and myths exists which mark the beginning of this big blue marble. One of the myths exists also for the contribution of lord Shiva in creation of this macrocosm. According to Hindu mythology, zero ( shunya)represents the Lord Shiva. May be the Shiva linga is oval in shape for the same reason! Shiva is said to be Adi deva, which means everything starts from him and he is the first one. Mathematics of infinity, zero, undefined, etc. can be applied here to get spiritual feelings and some secrets with better understanding. Our recent discoveries don’t suggest what happened. We say big bang happened some 14 billion years ago. The Hindu cosmology and timeline is the closest to modern scientific timelines which might indicate that the Big Bang theory is not the beginning of everything but just the start. This is similar to the fact that the Big Bang theory is described as the birth of universe (Brahma), life of universe (Vishnu) and the Big crunch would be described as the destruction of the universe (Shiva). But, from where did the matter come out at once? No one has an explanation. According to Vedas, the universe was born out of nothing (shunya- Lord Shiva). Infinity and zero are both the things where the modern scientists failed to connect while our ancient Vedas already connected. Space (Lord Shiva himself) is a platform where all this universe works. Probably that was the reason why Lord Shiva doesn’t completely take part in any epic directly. He just sets up platform where Lord Vishnu plays all the things. In Hinduism, the “Creation and Destruction of universe” is a continuous, cyclical process. On one side, creation happens in the universe and still on another side, destruction happens. Idol of Lord Shiva symbolizes the creation and destruction of universe. The upper right hand holds a drum representing the primal sound of creation, upper left hand bears a tongue of flames which personifies the element of destruction. His both hands epitomizes the dynamic balance of creation and destruction. According to our Purans and Rigvedas, the following shloka explains that Shiva is the one.

Shiva Vishnu rupaya

Shiva rupaya Vishnave

Shivaya Hrudayan Vishnu

Vishosheha hurdayagum Shivaha

Yadha Shiva mayo Vishnu

Revam Vishnu maya Shivah

Yadhantarana Apashyani

Tathamo Swastirupushi

-Shipra Kapoor
XII - B