When we talk about Shiva, sometimes we are talking about a human yogi: a mahasiddha. Sometimes we are talking about a deity. And sometimes we are talking about ultimate Reality.

A few good books have been written about the personality of the deity Shiva as portrayed in written texts and ritual. There are also various stories and theories about Shiva as a historical person.

But what I want to talk about here is the personality of the cosmos, of Shiva as Reality and totality. Modest, aren’t I?

I once met some practitioners who, when asked to describe their tradition, would answer “We are about finding TRUTH.” As they spoke these words, you could practically hear the capital letters. A funny little look would emerge on their faces: a kind of “I dare you” gleam of self-pride in this supposedly ultimate and unassailable View.

The cosmos according to Tantrik View is not about truth or the getting of truth. The cosmos is simply expressive. But it’s not about expression; it simply does its creative thing without the fanfare of bothering to declare itself to be about this or that. Get it?

Nowhere to run to baby, nowhere to hide….

Everything you see, hear, feel, touch, and taste, including yourself, is the manifest expression of Shiva and is non-different from Shiva.

So when I say “Shiva’s personality,” I mean the entire manifest world, all the laws of nature, karma, and all of the other beings of the world.

Every loka (realm) has its own flavor of expression. For instance, the flavor of the titan realm is jealousy. The flavor of the deva realm is bliss.

Every class of beings perceives Reality differently because they are different Shiva expressions, different personality expressions of the whole.

Imagine yourself enjoying a sporting event, or fighting with your mate, or obsessing about your boss. Instead of indulging in unconscious immersion in these events, you might take a time out and think: Hey, right now, I’m just an aspect of Shiva’s human personality expressing itself. How interesting!

Or wherever you are right now, take a moment to enjoy one of your five senses and experience that as part of the unique cosmic personality expression we call “human.”

Also, when you meet someone who turns you off, or on, you can try viewing that person as You (Shiva) with a different personality expression.

I’ve often thought about the forms of practice in my tradition, about puja and mantra and so on. Couldn’t everything be different? Why these particular words, gestures, and implements? Isn’t it all rather arbitrary?

Well, yes and no. You could also say the laws of Nature are arbitrary. On the other hand, when we perform practices, we are Shiva practicing natural devotion for Shiva in the precise way that has spontaneously emerged as Shiva’s spiritual expression in the human realm. Over time, the forms will change, and the gods will change, too, but for now, this is the devotional personality of Shiva as we humans enjoy it and embody it.

Now we can understand why the cosmos is responsive to our practice, and why we are responsive. We are authentically participating in the naturally-emerging and appropriate spiritual language of this time and place.

Most of us are unconsciously bound to a reactive View of the various expressive aspects of our world. We categorize other beings and situations depending on whether we feel attraction or aversion to them, or believe they are right or wrong. This causes us much suffering and inflicts suffering on others.

When we allow ourselves to experience the variations we encounter as creative expression, this helps us to shift our experience from the drama of attachment to the freedom of enjoying the world just as it is.

OM Shanti,
Shambhavi

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