The Festival of Shiv 2011: To Be Shiv Like Part II-Shivoham! Shivoham!

Photo taken of Shiv doing the dance of destruction outside CERN from this site

As we draw nearer to Maha Shivratri on the festival of Shiv we figured we'd stick to the theme of being Shiv like until the Maha Shivratri because we are simply having so much fun with the theme but also because there is so much we like about Shiv that it couldn't fit in just one blog! He inspires us to want to be like him so much that...if like Shiv if we could only be like Shiv we'd be enthused and if we achieved it we'd be filled with bliss even! And we have a sneaking suspicion that not only us on UCP feel like this! After all for centuries and centuries ascetics, scholars, sanyasis, pundits, brahmins, non-brahmins, believers, repenters and just plain ole folks have been searching for Shiv so that they can be more like him! Infact this search is so ancient and well known that it already has it's own term in Sanskrit:

Shivoham, Shivoham!

I am Shiv! I am Shiv!

is the exclamation as we realise that we could indeed be like Shiv and in that realization we become:

Chid ananda rupah i.e. we achieve consciousness and bliss! :)

But as we continue to admire Baba Shiv so that we can be shivoham, shivoham! Let's again today talk about some of the Shiv like things we admire here at UCP.

-His love for animals and nature as a whole: This no doubt overlaps with what we wrote on yesterday's blog i.e. that we admire his love and compassion. But we just felt we'd be more specific here to say that Baba Shiv doesn't just show love and compassion for human beings he shows it for all of the beings in the Universe...beasts, birds and bees, trees, the ocean, the rivers and everything included! Baba Shiv is like a protector of all animals and the elements for sure! After all he even lets poisonous snakes drape him and he holds the moon and the great river Ganga in his hair! In fact he so loves animals and is such a protector of them that he is often known as Pashupati which in Sanskrit means 'The Lord of Animals'. Baba Shiv sits atop the snowy caps of Mount Kailash in the Himalayas prevading over all of nature and its animals! Jai Bhole Nath!

-His Dancing Skills!: It is often said that Baba Shiv is the dancer and we the dance! UCP so gets this after all we are all just at the whim of the Universe blowing here and blowing there in the wake of its dance! But we at UCP believe through meditation, experimentation, soul searching, studying the universal dance itself we can all understand the dance so well that we can one day even dancers be! Just try it! Chant Shivoham! Shivoham! and meditate and start stripping all the things that keep you from your true nature...feel the freeness as you become one with you...Shivoham! Shivoham! Appreciate the nature around you...switch off this blog...your cell phone and just let it sink in and we say you'll be one step closer to being Shivoham! Shivoham! One step closer to not just being the dance but having the ability to be the dancer because you will be so attuned with the dancer that you will know and not resist his steps!

Om Namah Shivay!