The Festival of Shiv 2011: To Be Shiv Like!

Shiv Murti, Rishikesh, INDIA. Copyright Meady's Musings Production 2008

First of all before we go into our topic today we'd just like to apologise for not doing a blog on the festival this last Thursday as we had planned at the start of the festival to at least blog every Monday and Thursday...however to make up for it you should know that now until Maha Shivratri we will be blogging on the festival daily. Also we thought you'd liked to recall what we posted on the festival of Shiv last year to add to the fun and meditative joys!:

The Festival of Shiv 2010!


Now on to today's topic...

TO BE SHIV LIKE!


It is well known that here at UCP we look up to Shiv as the supreme guru of many things and in many ways. But it is important to realise that in all guru-chela relationships or teacher-disciple relationships that the whole point of the relationship is for the chela to become more like the guru i.e. if the relationship goes well and the teacher teaches well and the student learns well...well the end product should be a student who is at least as good as the teacher or if it goes really well he should be even better. However if your guru is already the supreme guru...the Universal guru that is Shiv well then you cannot out do that...so you can only strive to be like him...like Shiv if I could be like Shiv!:)

Om Namah Shivay!

So here are some of the Shiv Like Things we here at UCP strive for:

-His Meditative Focus: The power to be so focussed on one's meditation that it would take an avalanche...a mudslide...a giant volcano erupting...a 10.0 on the richter scale earthquake in a main city centre....a giant tsunami...an atomic explosion even to wake you unless you chose to be aroused from it!

-His Hippiness: Don't get us wrong we're not advocating here careless or licenticious lifestyles. But Baba Shiv has never conformed...just recall in the vid below (taken from the 1974 verison of the film 'Har Har Mahadev!') at his very own wedding where he only conformed momentarily out of his love and compassion (in return for her selfless worship) to Parvati to put on fancy wedding clothes. You see what we're admiring here and advocating as a lesson we learnt from Baba Shiv is his ability to not allow society to define who and what he is...he pushes the envelope...he accepts whatever he likes and rejects whatever he dislikes without worrying what the masses think of him...he is his own man...not a man defined by what he perceives society expects of him!



-His Love and Compassion: Well as in the vid above Baba Shiv extends love and compassion to all his true devotees...and if a devotee slips once they come back again to him he forgives them as an extension of his compassion and loves them all the same. We should all be so loving, forgiving and compassionate and we here at UCP cherish this as our ideal to reach for! And Baba Shiv is not just loving and compassionate to some but to all...to all of the Universe's creatures and creations...he does not discriminate. It is why he is sometimes called Bhoot Nath as he is also the God of the ghosts...he hangs out at cremation sites smeared in ashes, lets snakes hang all over him and is never shying away from conversation with any creature even if it might have a few heads! :) Just look at the people who was at his wedding in the vid above. And we should all be so non-judgemental in our Universal...Divine...Love!:) No wonder we think he lives at our own favourite Shiv place at times...pictured below...


Mosquito Creek, Trinidad copyright Meady's Musings Production 2009.

There is so much more we could say in our admiration and desire to be more Shiv like but for today we shall stop here!

Jai Bholenath!