Siva-Lingam

By T. K. S.¹

Siva-Lingam must not be taken to mean Siva's lingam, for Siva is Himself the Lingam. Lingam means 'indicator', as smoke is an indicator of fire. By Siva everything is brought to consciousness and thus indicated, but nothing can indicate Siva. By His Self-revealing Consciousness He animates all manifestation. Matter needs to be animated by Spirit, but Spirit only by Itself.

If Siva were not pure Consciousness how could He be Siva? And if He were non-existent the whole universe which manifests Him would be non-existent! There would be mere nescience.

The existence of nescience cannot be established by nescience. It is Siva, as pure Consciousness and Witness of manifestation who reminds us of manifestation; but the Siva who reminds us is not Himself reminded.

This Maheswara² is Pure Light. So declare the scriptures. Through His Light the universe is perceived. Therefore Siva is Himself the Lingam, the indicator. For enlightened souls this Siva-Lingam is indeed worthy of worship.

It is He who gives life and light to all, though when seen as Arunachala Hill He appears to be dull and inert through the power of His maya. The undiscriminating do not perceive the Light of Siva in Siva-Lingam.

Some say that the Mahavakya (the supreme scriptural texts such as 'That thou art') are the lingam or indicator of Siva, others that maya, the property of Siva, is; others again that intellect or ego-sense is; others say the life-force or sound or existence. But the great sages declare with absolute knowledge that since Siva is Self-effulgent there is nothing to indicate Him.

Knowledge alone is the indicator. Maheswara, abiding in all bodily vehicles, is witnessing or recollecting Himself.

Some say that alaya, the substratum and support of all, is the indicator, but Siva Himself is the support of all. He alone is Truth or Reality. He is Sat-Chit-Ananda, Being-Consciousness-Bliss. Consciousness is Being; unconsciousness can never be Being. For Him who is the support of all there can be no support. He is unsupported like the ether (akasha).

For beings in samsara (which is the same as ajnana, ignorance) a support is provided commensurate with the ripeness of their intellect, for worship of the Unsupported Supreme.

Some knowers of the Vedas say that everything is absorbed in the Lingam (from ligi, 'to be absorbed'), but even so Maheswara, the Almighty, is that Self-evident Lingam and is not absorbed. This whole universe, whose nature it is to be absorbed, is absorbed in Brahman, but Brahman is never absorbed.

Just as the illusion of silver in mother-of-pearl loses its apparent reality through knowledge (that it is not silver), so through knowledge all that appears to be extraneous to the Supreme Lord Siva, who is Brahman, is absorbed in Him.

Those who practise kundalini-yoga find the lingams in the nadis or yogic centres in the body and make these the seats for the worship of Siva.

The submergence of the thought-current in the unruffled calm of Paramatma is said to be the essential worship. Mere worship through mantras is not enough to destroy once and for all the tree of samsara, whose root is nescience. Knowledge (Jnana) alone is the true invocation of Siva. Formal puja (worship) is of the gross state; the Vedas are the means to Realization; but Jnana is the Supreme State. It is inner worship and must be carried on unremittingly to terminate the cycle of births and deaths.
_____________________
1 - The author unfortunately died shortly after writing this article. See the obituary published in this issue (Editor)
2 - MahaIshvara, the Almighty, a name of Siva.