The Festival of Shiv 2011: To Be Shiv Like Part III

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

Today as we are on our final installation in the three part series on being Shiv Like we will get straight to it and tomorrow we will share with you some of the meaningful aspects of Mahashivratri as it is the big day tomorrow!

So here we go with some more of the things that makes us want to be Shiv Like!:

He Leads a Simple Life: We here at UCP emulate Baba Shiv's lifestyle as he lives in the forest here and there and he is content with just enough clothing to cover him. And he eats simple foods collected in the forest. When he does eat that is...because he seems to never be eating anyway as he is mostly meditating! You can just imagine how low Baba Shiv's carbon footprint must be! :)After all as a friend of UCP reminded us...Shiv is also known as Ashutosh...one who is pleased easily! And indeed he is! And if we could all be as Shiv like as him...well we for sure would be drawing down way less on the earth's limited resources!

He is the Supreme Yogi!: We here at UCP are always ranting about Baba Shiv being the supreme yogi. You can recall our first admittance to this during Maha Shivratri 2009 by clicking on this link. And we are also always talking about how we often visualise Baba Shiv doing yogic stretches along the banks of our favourite Shiv place: The Mosquito Creek in Trinidad. Additionally yogis and yoginis from far and wide travel to Rishikesh to be part of yoga festivals where Baba Shiv is the keynote speaker! (in a metaphorical sense at least) :) Usually the festival coincides with Maha Shivratri infact there is one going on all now as we write just check this link for details. And of course we here at UCP wish we could be a yogi or yogini like Baba Shiv because the benefits of it are multifold when it comes to one's mental, physical and spiritual state! :)

He conquers death or is fearless to it: Baba Shiv is obviously not afraid of things related to death and dying or destruction. After all he destroys the Universe every once in a while and hangs out with bhoots (ghosts) of all forms and fashions. He also tends to hang out at cremation sites and even smears his body in the ash of the dead. Hey we at UCP wish we could all be so comfortable with death...acknowledging that...to everything there is always an end...including our mortal coils and those of our loved ones. To face the fear of death is often man's greatest challenge yet...so we look to Baba Shiv for some tips there!

He transcends time: We at UCP always get the feeling that Baba Shiv is not bounded by time...we get the idea that he could exist in the past, present and future at all times. We don't have any empirical evidence of this nor any relgious scripture can we cite. But we are students of metaphysics here at the Meady's Musings Production House...and somehow everytime we look at murtis of Baba Shiv or read about him in religious scriptures we just get that feeling about him...and of course wouldn't it be cool if you could no longer be bounded by time! Perhaps if one became Shivoham! Shivoham! on that spiritual level...time does not exist?! And so it cannot bind us! :)

And in closing as we talk about Baba Shiv and conquering our fear of death we play the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra...let's have the guys at the UCP desk cue it up now...OK play away! :)