دار بيبليون
Shiva Festival Celebration, Lecture and Poems by Lwiis Saliba, on Zoom Wednesday 26/2/2025
Shiva, whose name means good, kind, is the third god of the Hindu trinity Trimurti, which includes: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Shiva is the destroyer: The destroyer of worlds and the dissolver of elements, and the one who destroys ignorance (Avidyâ).
The name Shiva does not appear in the Vedas. Instead, there is a deity called Rudra, the oldest form of Shiva. In the Rig Veda, Rudra is used as a synonym for Agni (the goddess of fire). In the epic Ramayana, Shiva appears as a great God, and in the Mahabharata, the greatest of the three is sometimes Vishnu, sometimes Shiva. In many hymns of the Mahabharata, Shiva appears as the Lord and creator of Brahma and Vishnu, the dispeller of ignorance, the teacher and Lord of the yogis. The Shaivite sects consider him to be the ultimate deity, the supreme truth, the creator, the inner fire that burns the hermits, and the time that reduces everything to nothingness and recreates it. This recalls the verse of the Quran “God begins creation then He will renew it. Then you will be brought back to Him” (Rum 30/11), which is also repeated many times in the Quran. He is the beginning, the end, the thesis and the antithesis, the mover and agitator of the perceptible world, and he is love, both creator and destroyer. He is symbolized by the Linga, the erect male organ that penetrates the female vagina the Yoni. This is the destructive time Kala. He is the Lord of sleep. He is also Nátarája: The King of Dance, whose dance creates and destroys the visible world. He has 1008 names and epithets. Each name is associated with one of his forms. Shiva’s symbols include the three-pronged spear, the torch, the magic axe, the crescent he wears in his hair, the waves of the Ganga that flowed from his hair when he fell from the sky, and the tiger skin that covers his hips Damîru. The animal Shiva rides Vahana is the white bull Nandin, which symbolizes earthly powers, the ability to procreate, and the cosmic duty Dharma.
In most of his paintings, Shiva’s forehead is marked with the third eye, a symbol of perfect knowledge, and his nukuta hair braids are similar to those of a yogi; he is the model of the perfect yogi.
Shiva’s wife is Shakti or Parvati, with whom he has two sons: Ganesha, who is depicted with the head of an elephant, and Subrâhmanya.
Shiva is sometimes depicted in a mixed form, either with his wife Shakti, symbolizing the masculine (Shiva) and feminine (Shakti) energies, or with Vishnu: Hari-hara, the preserving and destroying duo.
Shiva is considered the guru of gurus, the destroyer of the entire material world, the giver and distributor of wisdom, the master of mercy, asceticism and renunciation.
The following psalm sings of Shiva and praises him in particular as one of the divine attributes of the Unique and the “One”: The builder, the destroyer, the unifier of contradictions in himself and in his attributes. Shiva’s relationship with Islamic monotheism remains a major question to which it is difficult, if not impossible, to do justice in such a short time. The striking resemblance between the Black Stone and the Shiva Linga has already been discussed in our book: Aquinas’ Letter in Reply (pp. 90-91). Guru Nanak (1469-1539 AD), the founder of the Sikh religion who attempted to reconcile Hinduism with Islamic monotheism, considered this Stone to be nothing other than the Shiva Linga, as we have explained in this book. In any case, the Qur’anic verse: {We worship them only that they may bring us nearer to God}. (Rum 30/27), indicates a certain sense of monotheism among the ancient Meccans.
Psalm for Shiva
Shiva… To you I raise my invocation
and my praise… A psalm and a song.
O Gatherer of Contradictions…
O Perfect Yogi
Guru of Yogis
O Lover…
And Guardian of Chastity.
Patron of Ascetics and Monks.
And The Patron Saint of Lovers.
Shiva/Shakti
The Male/Female Duality
Omnipresent and present in all creation
The Guardian of Balance… and Survival.
Oh… How I long to prostrate myself in your temple.
Shiva, you the Destroyer…
Destroyer of falling and decaying worlds
Oh, how I need your work within me.
I need to destroy the sediments of the past.
The impurities of fear, anger, anxiety and ignorance.
They must be destroyed for a new beginning
and a new birth.
Om Nama Shivaya
Your child that I am… Your child who runs after you hoping for your help.
Destroy in me
The vestiges of my past
The filth and emotions that gnaw at my being
Ignorance and blindness.
Isn’t this the moment of my new birth?
The new the construction
must be preceded by the destruction of the old
No restoration is useful with sediments.
Oh, how I would like to be on the banks of the Ganges right now.
This sacred river that springs from your head.
Its streams that flow from the braids of your hair
So I praise your glory and your majesty
I invoke you with the other monks
Those who wake up
before dawn…
to praise you and implore
Your mercy… and your compassion.
And throw into the sacred river
A flower… and a candle
In your praise…
Om Nama Shivaya…
In this divine formula of yours
Something of the mystery of creation… and of creatures.
There is in it the supplication of the creature to the Creator.
Protect us… Guide our steps
Dispel our ignorance
May our eyes always be turned towards you
May our journey always be…
from you to you.
+++++++++++++++
From the mountains of Lebanon, my praise rises to you, Lord.
As they rose from the banks of the Ganges.
You are the one and only…
with all your divine faces
You are the “One” without a second
As the monks of Vedanta pray to you
Here I am humble before you
I prostrate myself in your temple.
The mountains and the earth
are your temples.
The springs and the rivers
A gift from you
to irrigate your creation.
The entire universe is a gift from you.
Grant us to recognize your gifts
to draw on the treasures of your wisdom
to contemplate your secrets
and to understand your will
You are the Creator, the Preserver, the Destroyer:
Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva
Glory to You
for ever and ever.
Monastery of the Nativity-Laqlouq
Saturday 30/06/2007
Pilgrim on the banks of the Ganges
I am a tourist… Pilgrim
A devotee A wanderer
And the banks of the Ganges are my pilgrimage.
I travel from bank to bank.
From monastery to monastery.
In each monastery, I receive love and blessings
I receive food for the body
and another for the soul.
May I spend the rest of my life
A pilgrim on the banks of this river?.
Pilgrimage to its banks
Is a Journey to the sources
And He who thirsts for them
will not be quenched
even if he drinks all its waters.
I return to you, O river…
To bring me back to myself.
And you have always succeeded in doing so.
How long have I been alienated?!
How long has my exile lasted?!
And here I am back to you… and you have brought me back.
Each time you give me your water
The more you make me thirsty.
My thirst can only be quenched by your holiness
and the holiness of your Creator.
Can you speak to me also and also of Him.
The silence of your running waters is a prayer of praise to Him
The blue of your celestial waters
testifies to its beauty… and tells.
And the greenery of the trees of this mountain
in the valley of which you flow
tells of its fertility
that fills the universe with life and living beings.
++++++++++
I am a tourist… I sail and I walk
And every day, I discover a continent in the unknown of myself.
I am a pilgrim…
And my pilgrimage will last a lifetime, even lifetimes and centuries.
And it will not stop and calm down…
Until the pure waters of this river rinse
All the dust that is stuck in the self
And the impressions and traces that are left there
Rishikesh on 04/29/2011