Highlights

• Goddess is nature and God is how nature is perceived by the human imagination. (Location 125)
• A flaccid penis indicates an unstirred mind. An erect penis represents a stirred mind. (Location 190)
• When the man’s eyes are shut and his penis is flaccid, it indicates a mind that refuses to submit to external stimulus. (Location 192)
• When the man’s eyes are shut and his penis is erect, as in the case of Lakulesh, it indicates a mind that is stirred by an internal stimulus. (Location 194)
• Realisation of this infinite power of the human imagination over nature’s reality is expressed in the self-stirred, erect phallus of Lakulesh. (Location 200)
• The self-stirred phallus of Lakulesh is a physical expression of an idea known as sat-chitta-ananda, which means tranquillity (ananda) that follows when the mind (chitta) discovers the truth of nature and of the human condition (sat) by purging itself of all memories and prejudice. (Location 206)
• Humans are the only creatures who can voluntarily make themselves extinct, if the men choose not to act on desire. (Location 237)
• Plants and animals cannot control their urge to spill their seed. Women have no control over their red seed. Their menstrual cycle is fettered to nature’s rhythms like the waxing and waning of the moon and the movement of the tides. Only the human male has the power to control the movement of his white seed. It can flow downwards in pleasure or to procreate — this results in mortality. It can be made to flow upwards with yoga. This generates wisdom, ignites the spiritual fire of Tapa and results in immortality. This upward movement of semen is described in Tantra as Urdhvaretas. (Location 245)
• The act of killing and the act of feeding are thus two sides of the same coin. (Location 268)
• Shiva reveals the power of the higher brain over the lower brain, the human brain over the animal brain. That is why he is called Pashu-pati, master of animal instincts. (Location 285)
• In art, Prakriti is visualised as the female body without the head while Purusha is visualised as the male head without the body. (Location 292)
• When one liberates oneself from the fear of death using faith, one becomes indifferent to death. Death then no longer controls us or frightens us. We are liberated. We achieve immortality. (Location 313)
• Ash is thus the symbol of the indestructible soul that occupies the body during life and outlives the body in death. (Location 316)
• BRAHMA RENAMES PRAKRITI AS SHATARUPA, she of myriad forms. (Location 342)
• Brahma then sprouts a fifth head on top of the first four. This sprouting of heads refers to the gradual contamination of the mind, its knotting and crumpling with fear and insecurity as the desire to dominate and control takes over. (Location 372)
• Every Brahma creates Brahmanda for his own pleasure or bhoga, indifferent to the impact it has on others. This self-indulgent act is described in narratives as Brahma pursuing his own daughter. (Location 389)
• BRAHMA SPLITS BRAHMANDA INTO THREE parts: me, mine and what is not mine. This is Tripura, the three worlds. Each of these three worlds is mortal. The ‘me’ is made up of the mind and body. ‘Mine’ is made up of property, knowledge, family and status. ‘Not mine’ is made up of all the other things that exist in the world over which one has no authority. Even animals have a ‘me’ but only humans have ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’. Human self-image is thus expanded beyond the body and includes possessions. (Location 418)
  • Tags: favorite
• he released the arrow and destroyed all three cities in an instant. He collected the ashes of these cities and smeared them across his forehead as three parallel lines. This was the Tripundra, the sacred mark of Shiva. It communicated to the world that the body, the property, and the rest of nature, the three worlds created by Brahma, are mortal. When they are destroyed, what remains is Purusha, the soul. (Location 437)
• Eventually, inevitably, the body will die, the property will go and the divide between ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’ will collapse as Prakriti stakes her claim. (Location 444)
• dogs are considered inauspicious in Hinduism. (Location 457)
• Dogs are most attached to their masters: wagging their tail when they get approval and attention, and whining when they do not. This makes the dog the symbol of the ego. (Location 457)
  • Tags: favorite
• Ego or ahamkara has no independent existence of its own but is constructed by Brahma and dependent on Brahmanda in an attempt to outgrow fear. It ends up amplifying fear. (Location 459)
• Dogs spray urine to mark their territory; even when they are domesticated and provided for, they mark territory indicating their lack of faith. (Location 461)
• He is angry with Brahma because Brahma seeks freedom from fear by trying to control Prakriti rather than by seeking Purusha. (Location 488)
• Wisdom is meaningless if it does not enable the liberation of those who are trapped in fear. (Location 493)
  • Tags: favorite
• In Indian philosophy, a thing exists when it is seen. And a creature is alive when it sees. (Location 498)
• Looking at others is called darshan. (Location 505)
• Yagna thus creates hierarchy. Thus the Rig Veda holds yagna as the core of human activity. (Location 536)
• Shiva seems to side with the Asuras by giving their guru, Shukra, the secret knowledge of resurrection known as Sanjivani Vidya. (Location 562)
• Shiva does not distinguish between Devas and Asuras; he is indifferent to their station or their roles. One is not the hero and the other is not the villain. (Location 567)
• When Sati follows Shiva, she does it out of unconditional love. She does not expect him to change. She serves him without asking anything in return. Shiva remains the wandering Tapasvin. She accepts him as he is. This is why the word ‘sati’ means a devoted wife. (Location 596)
• Vishnu hurls his discus, the Sudarshan Chakra, and cuts Sati’s body into 108 pieces. Each piece falls on earth and transforms into a Shakti-pitha, the seat of the Goddess. (Location 617)
• what true sacrifice is — the sacrifice of one’s animal nature and the realisation of one’s human nature. Only then will Praja-pati become Pashu-pati. Only then will fear give way to tranquillity. (Location 620)
• In Prakriti, death is merely a comma, not a full stop. What goes around always comes around. (Location 626)
  • Tags: favorite
• She prays to him with single-minded devotion, standing on one toe in the cold, immersing herself in freezing water, surrounding herself with fire. She does not eat or drink. She tortures her body to demonstrate her determination and her devotion. She becomes the Tapasvini. (Location 657)
• The relationship between Shiva and Parvati is not based on power. There is no conqueror and there is no conquest. Each one allows the other to dominate. Neither seeks to dominate the other. This is love. (Location 694)
• One can go around the Shiva-linga but not completely; the circular path around is blocked by the tip of the trough. After moving clockwise, one has to turn around and move back around the linga once again in the counter-clockwise direction. (Location 715)
• a reminder that to reach Pashu-pati one has to live in the realm of Praja-pati. (Location 717)
• The water dripping from the pot is a reminder that time is running out; as water slowly drains out of the pot, breath is draining out of our body. We have but this lifetime as a human being to discover Purusha, or we will remain pashu despite being blessed with human imagination. (Location 746)
• Everyone rejoices at the wedding of Shiva and Shakti. It is the one occasion where eternal enemies, Asuras and Devas, dance together. (Location 775)
• For Vishnu, culture is the springboard to outgrow the beast and discover humanity. For Shiva, culture is a delusion that distracts man from outgrowing the beast and discovering humanity. Though the means are different, the goal of dharma and vairagya are the same. (Location 791)
• While cannibalism is taboo in culture, it is not so in nature. (Location 803)
• Many animals eat members of their own species and so Aghoras, as they seek complete disruption of social rules, indulge in such practices. (Location 803)
• Ravana’s father is Vaishrava, whose father was Pulatsya, who is another mind-born son of Brahma. (Location 814)
• Agamas focus on the worship of a deity with form, i.e. saguna brahman, while Nigamas focus on the worship of a formless deity, nirguna brahman. (Location 907)
• water and milk are poured on the Shiva-linga, in the hope that it absorbs tapa from within Shiva and makes it available to the world around him. (Location 960)
• when a person dies, the karana sharira travels across the river Vaitarni and reaches the land of the dead where it resides as a Pitr. (Location 995)
• This is her son whom she calls Vinayaka, the one born without (vina) a man (nayaka). (Location 1021)
• When humanity ignores imagination, there is no growth, no quest to outgrow fear, no desire for spiritual reality. Evolution does not happen. (Location 1037)
• Wealth cannot give meaning to existence. To remind himself of this, he replaces his lost eye with an eye of gold, which is why Kubera is called Pingalaksha, he with a golden eye. (Location 1135)
• This Shiva-linga that Ganesha prevented from reaching Lanka is located at Gokarna along (Location 1167)
• Animals never overeat. (Location 1177)
• Devas are not afraid of dying. They have Amrita, nectar of immortality. But fear of predation envelops them. (Location 1202)
• the father is the source of Purusha and the mother, the source of Prakriti. (Location 1218)
• The first thing the child asks for is a weapon. Shakti gives him the vel or spear. Thus is born Vel Murugan, the spear-bearing warrior god, ready to do battle on the seventh day of his life when he is six days old. (Location 1254)
• Murugan, the son of the Kritikas, is known as Kartikeya. (Location 1263)
• As the son of Agni, Murugan is known as Agneya. As the son of Vayu, he is known as Guha, the mysterious one. As the son of the forest of reeds, he is known as Saravana. As the six-headed one, he is known as Shanmughan or Aramughan. As the wild, red-coloured warrior, he is Senthil. As the warrior who looks like a baby, he is called Kumara. (Location 1266)
• In Kerala, the son of Shiva and Mohini is called Ayyappa or Manikantha. He is Hari-Hara-Suta, (Location 1331)
• Every time Kartikeya approached a woman, they appeared to him either as his mother or as mourning widows. This is why Kartikeya never got married and that is why in the few north Indian temples of Kartikeya, women choose to stay out. (Location 1363)

7 Secrets of Shiva

• Author: Devdutt Pattanaik
• Full Title: 7 Secrets of Shiva
• Category: #books

Highlights

• Goddess is nature and God is how nature is perceived by the human imagination. (Location 125)
• A flaccid penis indicates an unstirred mind. An erect penis represents a stirred mind. (Location 190)
• When the man’s eyes are shut and his penis is flaccid, it indicates a mind that refuses to submit to external stimulus. (Location 192)
• When the man’s eyes are shut and his penis is erect, as in the case of Lakulesh, it indicates a mind that is stirred by an internal stimulus. (Location 194)
• Realisation of this infinite power of the human imagination over nature’s reality is expressed in the self-stirred, erect phallus of Lakulesh. (Location 200)
• The self-stirred phallus of Lakulesh is a physical expression of an idea known as sat-chitta-ananda, which means tranquillity (ananda) that follows when the mind (chitta) discovers the truth of nature and of the human condition (sat) by purging itself of all memories and prejudice. (Location 206)
• Humans are the only creatures who can voluntarily make themselves extinct, if the men choose not to act on desire. (Location 237)
• Plants and animals cannot control their urge to spill their seed. Women have no control over their red seed. Their menstrual cycle is fettered to nature’s rhythms like the waxing and waning of the moon and the movement of the tides. Only the human male has the power to control the movement of his white seed. It can flow downwards in pleasure or to procreate — this results in mortality. It can be made to flow upwards with yoga. This generates wisdom, ignites the spiritual fire of Tapa and results in immortality. This upward movement of semen is described in Tantra as Urdhvaretas. (Location 245)
• The act of killing and the act of feeding are thus two sides of the same coin. (Location 268)
• Shiva reveals the power of the higher brain over the lower brain, the human brain over the animal brain. That is why he is called Pashu-pati, master of animal instincts. (Location 285)
• In art, Prakriti is visualised as the female body without the head while Purusha is visualised as the male head without the body. (Location 292)
• When one liberates oneself from the fear of death using faith, one becomes indifferent to death. Death then no longer controls us or frightens us. We are liberated. We achieve immortality. (Location 313)
• Ash is thus the symbol of the indestructible soul that occupies the body during life and outlives the body in death. (Location 316)
• BRAHMA RENAMES PRAKRITI AS SHATARUPA, she of myriad forms. (Location 342)
• Brahma then sprouts a fifth head on top of the first four. This sprouting of heads refers to the gradual contamination of the mind, its knotting and crumpling with fear and insecurity as the desire to dominate and control takes over. (Location 372)
• Every Brahma creates Brahmanda for his own pleasure or bhoga, indifferent to the impact it has on others. This self-indulgent act is described in narratives as Brahma pursuing his own daughter. (Location 389)
• BRAHMA SPLITS BRAHMANDA INTO THREE parts: me, mine and what is not mine. This is Tripura, the three worlds. Each of these three worlds is mortal. The ‘me’ is made up of the mind and body. ‘Mine’ is made up of property, knowledge, family and status. ‘Not mine’ is made up of all the other things that exist in the world over which one has no authority. Even animals have a ‘me’ but only humans have ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’. Human self-image is thus expanded beyond the body and includes possessions. (Location 418)
  • Tags: favorite
• he released the arrow and destroyed all three cities in an instant. He collected the ashes of these cities and smeared them across his forehead as three parallel lines. This was the Tripundra, the sacred mark of Shiva. It communicated to the world that the body, the property, and the rest of nature, the three worlds created by Brahma, are mortal. When they are destroyed, what remains is Purusha, the soul. (Location 437)
• Eventually, inevitably, the body will die, the property will go and the divide between ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’ will collapse as Prakriti stakes her claim. (Location 444)
• dogs are considered inauspicious in Hinduism. (Location 457)
• Dogs are most attached to their masters: wagging their tail when they get approval and attention, and whining when they do not. This makes the dog the symbol of the ego. (Location 457)
  • Tags: favorite
• Ego or ahamkara has no independent existence of its own but is constructed by Brahma and dependent on Brahmanda in an attempt to outgrow fear. It ends up amplifying fear. (Location 459)
• Dogs spray urine to mark their territory; even when they are domesticated and provided for, they mark territory indicating their lack of faith. (Location 461)
• He is angry with Brahma because Brahma seeks freedom from fear by trying to control Prakriti rather than by seeking Purusha. (Location 488)
• Wisdom is meaningless if it does not enable the liberation of those who are trapped in fear. (Location 493)
  • Tags: favorite
• In Indian philosophy, a thing exists when it is seen. And a creature is alive when it sees. (Location 498)
• Looking at others is called darshan. (Location 505)
• Yagna thus creates hierarchy. Thus the Rig Veda holds yagna as the core of human activity. (Location 536)
• Shiva seems to side with the Asuras by giving their guru, Shukra, the secret knowledge of resurrection known as Sanjivani Vidya. (Location 562)
• Shiva does not distinguish between Devas and Asuras; he is indifferent to their station or their roles. One is not the hero and the other is not the villain. (Location 567)
• When Sati follows Shiva, she does it out of unconditional love. She does not expect him to change. She serves him without asking anything in return. Shiva remains the wandering Tapasvin. She accepts him as he is. This is why the word ‘sati’ means a devoted wife. (Location 596)
• Vishnu hurls his discus, the Sudarshan Chakra, and cuts Sati’s body into 108 pieces. Each piece falls on earth and transforms into a Shakti-pitha, the seat of the Goddess. (Location 617)
• what true sacrifice is — the sacrifice of one’s animal nature and the realisation of one’s human nature. Only then will Praja-pati become Pashu-pati. Only then will fear give way to tranquillity. (Location 620)
• In Prakriti, death is merely a comma, not a full stop. What goes around always comes around. (Location 626)
  • Tags: favorite
• She prays to him with single-minded devotion, standing on one toe in the cold, immersing herself in freezing water, surrounding herself with fire. She does not eat or drink. She tortures her body to demonstrate her determination and her devotion. She becomes the Tapasvini. (Location 657)
• The relationship between Shiva and Parvati is not based on power. There is no conqueror and there is no conquest. Each one allows the other to dominate. Neither seeks to dominate the other. This is love. (Location 694)
• One can go around the Shiva-linga but not completely; the circular path around is blocked by the tip of the trough. After moving clockwise, one has to turn around and move back around the linga once again in the counter-clockwise direction. (Location 715)
• a reminder that to reach Pashu-pati one has to live in the realm of Praja-pati. (Location 717)
• The water dripping from the pot is a reminder that time is running out; as water slowly drains out of the pot, breath is draining out of our body. We have but this lifetime as a human being to discover Purusha, or we will remain pashu despite being blessed with human imagination. (Location 746)
• Everyone rejoices at the wedding of Shiva and Shakti. It is the one occasion where eternal enemies, Asuras and Devas, dance together. (Location 775)
• For Vishnu, culture is the springboard to outgrow the beast and discover humanity. For Shiva, culture is a delusion that distracts man from outgrowing the beast and discovering humanity. Though the means are different, the goal of dharma and vairagya are the same. (Location 791)
• While cannibalism is taboo in culture, it is not so in nature. (Location 803)
• Many animals eat members of their own species and so Aghoras, as they seek complete disruption of social rules, indulge in such practices. (Location 803)
• Ravana’s father is Vaishrava, whose father was Pulatsya, who is another mind-born son of Brahma. (Location 814)
• Agamas focus on the worship of a deity with form, i.e. saguna brahman, while Nigamas focus on the worship of a formless deity, nirguna brahman. (Location 907)
• water and milk are poured on the Shiva-linga, in the hope that it absorbs tapa from within Shiva and makes it available to the world around him. (Location 960)
• when a person dies, the karana sharira travels across the river Vaitarni and reaches the land of the dead where it resides as a Pitr. (Location 995)
• This is her son whom she calls Vinayaka, the one born without (vina) a man (nayaka). (Location 1021)
• When humanity ignores imagination, there is no growth, no quest to outgrow fear, no desire for spiritual reality. Evolution does not happen. (Location 1037)
• Wealth cannot give meaning to existence. To remind himself of this, he replaces his lost eye with an eye of gold, which is why Kubera is called Pingalaksha, he with a golden eye. (Location 1135)
• This Shiva-linga that Ganesha prevented from reaching Lanka is located at Gokarna along (Location 1167)
• Devas are not afraid of dying. They have Amrita, nectar of immortality. But fear of predation envelops them. (Location 1202)
• the father is the source of Purusha and the mother, the source of Prakriti. (Location 1218)
• The first thing the child asks for is a weapon. Shakti gives him the vel or spear. Thus is born Vel Murugan, the spear-bearing warrior god, ready to do battle on the seventh day of his life when he is six days old. (Location 1254)
• Murugan, the son of the Kritikas, is known as Kartikeya. (Location 1263)
• As the son of Agni, Murugan is known as Agneya. As the son of Vayu, he is known as Guha, the mysterious one. As the son of the forest of reeds, he is known as Saravana. As the six-headed one, he is known as Shanmughan or Aramughan. As the wild, red-coloured warrior, he is Senthil. As the warrior who looks like a baby, he is called Kumara. (Location 1266)
• In Kerala, the son of Shiva and Mohini is called Ayyappa or Manikantha. He is Hari-Hara-Suta, (Location 1331)
• Every time Kartikeya approached a woman, they appeared to him either as his mother or as mourning widows. This is why Kartikeya never got married and that is why in the few north Indian temples of Kartikeya, women choose to stay out. (Location 1363)

7 Secrets of Shiva

• Author: Devdutt Pattanaik
• Full Title: 7 Secrets of Shiva
• Category: #books

Highlights

• Goddess is nature and God is how nature is perceived by the human imagination. (Location 125)
• A flaccid penis indicates an unstirred mind. An erect penis represents a stirred mind. (Location 190)
• When the man’s eyes are shut and his penis is flaccid, it indicates a mind that refuses to submit to external stimulus. (Location 192)
• When the man’s eyes are shut and his penis is erect, as in the case of Lakulesh, it indicates a mind that is stirred by an internal stimulus. (Location 194)
• Realisation of this infinite power of the human imagination over nature’s reality is expressed in the self-stirred, erect phallus of Lakulesh. (Location 200)
• The self-stirred phallus of Lakulesh is a physical expression of an idea known as sat-chitta-ananda, which means tranquillity (ananda) that follows when the mind (chitta) discovers the truth of nature and of the human condition (sat) by purging itself of all memories and prejudice. (Location 206)
• Humans are the only creatures who can voluntarily make themselves extinct, if the men choose not to act on desire. (Location 237)
• Plants and animals cannot control their urge to spill their seed. Women have no control over their red seed. Their menstrual cycle is fettered to nature’s rhythms like the waxing and waning of the moon and the movement of the tides. Only the human male has the power to control the movement of his white seed. It can flow downwards in pleasure or to procreate — this results in mortality. It can be made to flow upwards with yoga. This generates wisdom, ignites the spiritual fire of Tapa and results in immortality. This upward movement of semen is described in Tantra as Urdhvaretas. (Location 245)
• The act of killing and the act of feeding are thus two sides of the same coin. (Location 268)
• Shiva reveals the power of the higher brain over the lower brain, the human brain over the animal brain. That is why he is called Pashu-pati, master of animal instincts. (Location 285)
• In art, Prakriti is visualised as the female body without the head while Purusha is visualised as the male head without the body. (Location 292)
• When one liberates oneself from the fear of death using faith, one becomes indifferent to death. Death then no longer controls us or frightens us. We are liberated. We achieve immortality. (Location 313)
• Ash is thus the symbol of the indestructible soul that occupies the body during life and outlives the body in death. (Location 316)
• BRAHMA RENAMES PRAKRITI AS SHATARUPA, she of myriad forms. (Location 342)
• Brahma then sprouts a fifth head on top of the first four. This sprouting of heads refers to the gradual contamination of the mind, its knotting and crumpling with fear and insecurity as the desire to dominate and control takes over. (Location 372)
• Every Brahma creates Brahmanda for his own pleasure or bhoga, indifferent to the impact it has on others. This self-indulgent act is described in narratives as Brahma pursuing his own daughter. (Location 389)
• BRAHMA SPLITS BRAHMANDA INTO THREE parts: me, mine and what is not mine. This is Tripura, the three worlds. Each of these three worlds is mortal. The ‘me’ is made up of the mind and body. ‘Mine’ is made up of property, knowledge, family and status. ‘Not mine’ is made up of all the other things that exist in the world over which one has no authority. Even animals have a ‘me’ but only humans have ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’. Human self-image is thus expanded beyond the body and includes possessions. (Location 418)
  • Tags: favorite
• he released the arrow and destroyed all three cities in an instant. He collected the ashes of these cities and smeared them across his forehead as three parallel lines. This was the Tripundra, the sacred mark of Shiva. It communicated to the world that the body, the property, and the rest of nature, the three worlds created by Brahma, are mortal. When they are destroyed, what remains is Purusha, the soul. (Location 437)
• Eventually, inevitably, the body will die, the property will go and the divide between ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’ will collapse as Prakriti stakes her claim. (Location 444)
• dogs are considered inauspicious in Hinduism. (Location 457)
• Dogs are most attached to their masters: wagging their tail when they get approval and attention, and whining when they do not. This makes the dog the symbol of the ego. (Location 457)
  • Tags: favorite
• Ego or ahamkara has no independent existence of its own but is constructed by Brahma and dependent on Brahmanda in an attempt to outgrow fear. It ends up amplifying fear. (Location 459)
• Dogs spray urine to mark their territory; even when they are domesticated and provided for, they mark territory indicating their lack of faith. (Location 461)
• He is angry with Brahma because Brahma seeks freedom from fear by trying to control Prakriti rather than by seeking Purusha. (Location 488)
• Wisdom is meaningless if it does not enable the liberation of those who are trapped in fear. (Location 493)
  • Tags: favorite
• In Indian philosophy, a thing exists when it is seen. And a creature is alive when it sees. (Location 498)
• Looking at others is called darshan. (Location 505)
• Yagna thus creates hierarchy. Thus the Rig Veda holds yagna as the core of human activity. (Location 536)
• Shiva seems to side with the Asuras by giving their guru, Shukra, the secret knowledge of resurrection known as Sanjivani Vidya. (Location 562)
• Shiva does not distinguish between Devas and Asuras; he is indifferent to their station or their roles. One is not the hero and the other is not the villain. (Location 567)
• When Sati follows Shiva, she does it out of unconditional love. She does not expect him to change. She serves him without asking anything in return. Shiva remains the wandering Tapasvin. She accepts him as he is. This is why the word ‘sati’ means a devoted wife. (Location 596)
• Vishnu hurls his discus, the Sudarshan Chakra, and cuts Sati’s body into 108 pieces. Each piece falls on earth and transforms into a Shakti-pitha, the seat of the Goddess. (Location 617)
• what true sacrifice is — the sacrifice of one’s animal nature and the realisation of one’s human nature. Only then will Praja-pati become Pashu-pati. Only then will fear give way to tranquillity. (Location 620)
• In Prakriti, death is merely a comma, not a full stop. What goes around always comes around. (Location 626)
  • Tags: favorite
• She prays to him with single-minded devotion, standing on one toe in the cold, immersing herself in freezing water, surrounding herself with fire. She does not eat or drink. She tortures her body to demonstrate her determination and her devotion. She becomes the Tapasvini. (Location 657)
• The relationship between Shiva and Parvati is not based on power. There is no conqueror and there is no conquest. Each one allows the other to dominate. Neither seeks to dominate the other. This is love. (Location 694)
• One can go around the Shiva-linga but not completely; the circular path around is blocked by the tip of the trough. After moving clockwise, one has to turn around and move back around the linga once again in the counter-clockwise direction. (Location 715)
• a reminder that to reach Pashu-pati one has to live in the realm of Praja-pati. (Location 717)
• The water dripping from the pot is a reminder that time is running out; as water slowly drains out of the pot, breath is draining out of our body. We have but this lifetime as a human being to discover Purusha, or we will remain pashu despite being blessed with human imagination. (Location 746)
• Everyone rejoices at the wedding of Shiva and Shakti. It is the one occasion where eternal enemies, Asuras and Devas, dance together. (Location 775)
• For Vishnu, culture is the springboard to outgrow the beast and discover humanity. For Shiva, culture is a delusion that distracts man from outgrowing the beast and discovering humanity. Though the means are different, the goal of dharma and vairagya are the same. (Location 791)
• While cannibalism is taboo in culture, it is not so in nature. (Location 803)
• Many animals eat members of their own species and so Aghoras, as they seek complete disruption of social rules, indulge in such practices. (Location 803)
• Ravana’s father is Vaishrava, whose father was Pulatsya, who is another mind-born son of Brahma. (Location 814)
• Agamas focus on the worship of a deity with form, i.e. saguna brahman, while Nigamas focus on the worship of a formless deity, nirguna brahman. (Location 907)
• water and milk are poured on the Shiva-linga, in the hope that it absorbs tapa from within Shiva and makes it available to the world around him. (Location 960)
• when a person dies, the karana sharira travels across the river Vaitarni and reaches the land of the dead where it resides as a Pitr. (Location 995)
• This is her son whom she calls Vinayaka, the one born without (vina) a man (nayaka). (Location 1021)
• When humanity ignores imagination, there is no growth, no quest to outgrow fear, no desire for spiritual reality. Evolution does not happen. (Location 1037)
• Wealth cannot give meaning to existence. To remind himself of this, he replaces his lost eye with an eye of gold, which is why Kubera is called Pingalaksha, he with a golden eye. (Location 1135)
• This Shiva-linga that Ganesha prevented from reaching Lanka is located at Gokarna along (Location 1167)
• Devas are not afraid of dying. They have Amrita, nectar of immortality. But fear of predation envelops them. (Location 1202)
• the father is the source of Purusha and the mother, the source of Prakriti. (Location 1218)
• The first thing the child asks for is a weapon. Shakti gives him the vel or spear. Thus is born Vel Murugan, the spear-bearing warrior god, ready to do battle on the seventh day of his life when he is six days old. (Location 1254)
• Murugan, the son of the Kritikas, is known as Kartikeya. (Location 1263)
• As the son of Agni, Murugan is known as Agneya. As the son of Vayu, he is known as Guha, the mysterious one. As the son of the forest of reeds, he is known as Saravana. As the six-headed one, he is known as Shanmughan or Aramughan. As the wild, red-coloured warrior, he is Senthil. As the warrior who looks like a baby, he is called Kumara. (Location 1266)
• In Kerala, the son of Shiva and Mohini is called Ayyappa or Manikantha. He is Hari-Hara-Suta, (Location 1331)
• Every time Kartikeya approached a woman, they appeared to him either as his mother or as mourning widows. This is why Kartikeya never got married and that is why in the few north Indian temples of Kartikeya, women choose to stay out. (Location 1363)

author: Devdutt Pattanaik
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source: kindle
cover: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ipwKqDsdL._SL200_.jpg
category: books
last: 2022-01-16 04:56:00+00:00
summary: None
dg-publish: false

7 Secrets of Shiva

Highlights

• Goddess is nature and God is how nature is perceived by the human imagination. (Location 125)
• A flaccid penis indicates an unstirred mind. An erect penis represents a stirred mind. (Location 190)
• When the man’s eyes are shut and his penis is flaccid, it indicates a mind that refuses to submit to external stimulus. (Location 192)
• When the man’s eyes are shut and his penis is erect, as in the case of Lakulesh, it indicates a mind that is stirred by an internal stimulus. (Location 194)
• Realisation of this infinite power of the human imagination over nature’s reality is expressed in the self-stirred, erect phallus of Lakulesh. (Location 200)
• The self-stirred phallus of Lakulesh is a physical expression of an idea known as sat-chitta-ananda, which means tranquillity (ananda) that follows when the mind (chitta) discovers the truth of nature and of the human condition (sat) by purging itself of all memories and prejudice. (Location 206)
• Humans are the only creatures who can voluntarily make themselves extinct, if the men choose not to act on desire. (Location 237)
• Plants and animals cannot control their urge to spill their seed. Women have no control over their red seed. Their menstrual cycle is fettered to nature’s rhythms like the waxing and waning of the moon and the movement of the tides. Only the human male has the power to control the movement of his white seed. It can flow downwards in pleasure or to procreate — this results in mortality. It can be made to flow upwards with yoga. This generates wisdom, ignites the spiritual fire of Tapa and results in immortality. This upward movement of semen is described in Tantra as Urdhvaretas. (Location 245)
• The act of killing and the act of feeding are thus two sides of the same coin. (Location 268)
• Shiva reveals the power of the higher brain over the lower brain, the human brain over the animal brain. That is why he is called Pashu-pati, master of animal instincts. (Location 285)
• In art, Prakriti is visualised as the female body without the head while Purusha is visualised as the male head without the body. (Location 292)
• When one liberates oneself from the fear of death using faith, one becomes indifferent to death. Death then no longer controls us or frightens us. We are liberated. We achieve immortality. (Location 313)
• Ash is thus the symbol of the indestructible soul that occupies the body during life and outlives the body in death. (Location 316)
• BRAHMA RENAMES PRAKRITI AS SHATARUPA, she of myriad forms. (Location 342)
• Brahma then sprouts a fifth head on top of the first four. This sprouting of heads refers to the gradual contamination of the mind, its knotting and crumpling with fear and insecurity as the desire to dominate and control takes over. (Location 372)
• Every Brahma creates Brahmanda for his own pleasure or bhoga, indifferent to the impact it has on others. This self-indulgent act is described in narratives as Brahma pursuing his own daughter. (Location 389)
• BRAHMA SPLITS BRAHMANDA INTO THREE parts: me, mine and what is not mine. This is Tripura, the three worlds. Each of these three worlds is mortal. The ‘me’ is made up of the mind and body. ‘Mine’ is made up of property, knowledge, family and status. ‘Not mine’ is made up of all the other things that exist in the world over which one has no authority. Even animals have a ‘me’ but only humans have ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’. Human self-image is thus expanded beyond the body and includes possessions. (Location 418)
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• he released the arrow and destroyed all three cities in an instant. He collected the ashes of these cities and smeared them across his forehead as three parallel lines. This was the Tripundra, the sacred mark of Shiva. It communicated to the world that the body, the property, and the rest of nature, the three worlds created by Brahma, are mortal. When they are destroyed, what remains is Purusha, the soul. (Location 437)
• Eventually, inevitably, the body will die, the property will go and the divide between ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’ will collapse as Prakriti stakes her claim. (Location 444)
• dogs are considered inauspicious in Hinduism. (Location 457)
• Dogs are most attached to their masters: wagging their tail when they get approval and attention, and whining when they do not. This makes the dog the symbol of the ego. (Location 457)
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• Ego or ahamkara has no independent existence of its own but is constructed by Brahma and dependent on Brahmanda in an attempt to outgrow fear. It ends up amplifying fear. (Location 459)
• Dogs spray urine to mark their territory; even when they are domesticated and provided for, they mark territory indicating their lack of faith. (Location 461)
• He is angry with Brahma because Brahma seeks freedom from fear by trying to control Prakriti rather than by seeking Purusha. (Location 488)
• Wisdom is meaningless if it does not enable the liberation of those who are trapped in fear. (Location 493)
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• In Indian philosophy, a thing exists when it is seen. And a creature is alive when it sees. (Location 498)
• Looking at others is called darshan. (Location 505)
• Yagna thus creates hierarchy. Thus the Rig Veda holds yagna as the core of human activity. (Location 536)
• Shiva seems to side with the Asuras by giving their guru, Shukra, the secret knowledge of resurrection known as Sanjivani Vidya. (Location 562)
• Shiva does not distinguish between Devas and Asuras; he is indifferent to their station or their roles. One is not the hero and the other is not the villain. (Location 567)
• When Sati follows Shiva, she does it out of unconditional love. She does not expect him to change. She serves him without asking anything in return. Shiva remains the wandering Tapasvin. She accepts him as he is. This is why the word ‘sati’ means a devoted wife. (Location 596)
• Vishnu hurls his discus, the Sudarshan Chakra, and cuts Sati’s body into 108 pieces. Each piece falls on earth and transforms into a Shakti-pitha, the seat of the Goddess. (Location 617)
• what true sacrifice is — the sacrifice of one’s animal nature and the realisation of one’s human nature. Only then will Praja-pati become Pashu-pati. Only then will fear give way to tranquillity. (Location 620)
• In Prakriti, death is merely a comma, not a full stop. What goes around always comes around. (Location 626)
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• She prays to him with single-minded devotion, standing on one toe in the cold, immersing herself in freezing water, surrounding herself with fire. She does not eat or drink. She tortures her body to demonstrate her determination and her devotion. She becomes the Tapasvini. (Location 657)
• The relationship between Shiva and Parvati is not based on power. There is no conqueror and there is no conquest. Each one allows the other to dominate. Neither seeks to dominate the other. This is love. (Location 694)
• One can go around the Shiva-linga but not completely; the circular path around is blocked by the tip of the trough. After moving clockwise, one has to turn around and move back around the linga once again in the counter-clockwise direction. (Location 715)
• a reminder that to reach Pashu-pati one has to live in the realm of Praja-pati. (Location 717)
• The water dripping from the pot is a reminder that time is running out; as water slowly drains out of the pot, breath is draining out of our body. We have but this lifetime as a human being to discover Purusha, or we will remain pashu despite being blessed with human imagination. (Location 746)
• Everyone rejoices at the wedding of Shiva and Shakti. It is the one occasion where eternal enemies, Asuras and Devas, dance together. (Location 775)
• For Vishnu, culture is the springboard to outgrow the beast and discover humanity. For Shiva, culture is a delusion that distracts man from outgrowing the beast and discovering humanity. Though the means are different, the goal of dharma and vairagya are the same. (Location 791)
• While cannibalism is taboo in culture, it is not so in nature. (Location 803)
• Many animals eat members of their own species and so Aghoras, as they seek complete disruption of social rules, indulge in such practices. (Location 803)
• Ravana’s father is Vaishrava, whose father was Pulatsya, who is another mind-born son of Brahma. (Location 814)
• Agamas focus on the worship of a deity with form, i.e. saguna brahman, while Nigamas focus on the worship of a formless deity, nirguna brahman. (Location 907)
• water and milk are poured on the Shiva-linga, in the hope that it absorbs tapa from within Shiva and makes it available to the world around him. (Location 960)
• when a person dies, the karana sharira travels across the river Vaitarni and reaches the land of the dead where it resides as a Pitr. (Location 995)
• This is her son whom she calls Vinayaka, the one born without (vina) a man (nayaka). (Location 1021)
• When humanity ignores imagination, there is no growth, no quest to outgrow fear, no desire for spiritual reality. Evolution does not happen. (Location 1037)
• Wealth cannot give meaning to existence. To remind himself of this, he replaces his lost eye with an eye of gold, which is why Kubera is called Pingalaksha, he with a golden eye. (Location 1135)
• This Shiva-linga that Ganesha prevented from reaching Lanka is located at Gokarna along (Location 1167)
• Devas are not afraid of dying. They have Amrita, nectar of immortality. But fear of predation envelops them. (Location 1202)
• the father is the source of Purusha and the mother, the source of Prakriti. (Location 1218)
• The first thing the child asks for is a weapon. Shakti gives him the vel or spear. Thus is born Vel Murugan, the spear-bearing warrior god, ready to do battle on the seventh day of his life when he is six days old. (Location 1254)
• Murugan, the son of the Kritikas, is known as Kartikeya. (Location 1263)
• As the son of Agni, Murugan is known as Agneya. As the son of Vayu, he is known as Guha, the mysterious one. As the son of the forest of reeds, he is known as Saravana. As the six-headed one, he is known as Shanmughan or Aramughan. As the wild, red-coloured warrior, he is Senthil. As the warrior who looks like a baby, he is called Kumara. (Location 1266)
• In Kerala, the son of Shiva and Mohini is called Ayyappa or Manikantha. He is Hari-Hara-Suta, (Location 1331)
• Every time Kartikeya approached a woman, they appeared to him either as his mother or as mourning widows. This is why Kartikeya never got married and that is why in the few north Indian temples of Kartikeya, women choose to stay out. (Location 1363)