siva as my ishtadeva

[Guest guest]

i am wondering if any one could help me a bit.

i am a very ignorent westerner that was ina past life a saivite, i have had dreams and mystial visions of siva and durga. i am not worried about the dream as i know what they mean; i have a higher calling to reclaim my roots asa hindu.

i have been to smarta temple and harekrishna temple. but i am attracted to siva and durga mainly. though i really love krishan and rada but i cant see my self as a krishna devotee as i have had connection with siva since i was small child. i was 5 when i had visions of him when awake, my poor mother a buddhist had some issues with my visions and attraction to hinduism, i was 7-8 years old and litterly wanted to be a monk. i am 33 years old now i have married and have a child so that is not possible for 12 more years at least. i am considering the idea of renucation but feel my wife would be crushed at me doing some thing so extreme from her point of view.

 

i am one of those that has such a high IQ (high genius/savant)that i am frusterated with any form of schooling and study, it is like my mind is on overdrive at times. allmost all my material desires have been exausted as i have all i need in life materially.

 

i want to worship siva but i am highly frusterated at the daunting task of it.

 

is a serious regiment of japa of siva mantram and meditation on the lord enough for a person that is a meat eating, smoking, lazy american at least untill i am ready to really dive in to devotion to the lord?

 

i really do not want anything from the lord as i have all i need except i know that i harbor lust for women though i am married and anger at the world around me as i see some must insanity. i have no desire to do anything for personaly benifit except pleasing the lord.

i read that people worship siva to gain boons and material desires, that puts me off alot. as i only want to please the lord out of pure love. i read the tales of old about devotees that have pure love for the lord and i tear up and feel so wonderful.

i have been to a hare krishna temple and like and respect them there but i do not get the extreme emotional surges as i do when i see a shrine of lord siva and ganesha. i feel like i am not worthy of even the site of the lord. but since i have many dreams and spritual visions involving siva i feel connected to the siva aspect of the lord. krishna and rama are wonderful but there acpect of of the lord do not make me feel like i do when seeing a shiva and ganesha icon and shrine.

 

i honestly feel like a ignorent child and fear the consept of doing puja to siva. i am afraid and i know better. i would like some advice on worship of siva as he is my ishtadeva.

would even a vishnava pandit help me? there is alot near my home as a huge temple is blocks from my home.

[Pankaja_Dasa 1]

 

 

www.purebhakti.com

And type Siva or Shiva.

 

I think you'll find things that you never knew

about Shiva. He is VERY VERY complex.

[Guest guest]

How do you know you were a saivite in your past life?

 

Had you ever seen Shiva before your dreams or mystical visions? I mean an image of Shiva or something? Were you ever exposed to an image of Shiva, and maybe it was imprinted on your subconscious?

 

Also, renunciation doesn't necessarily mean giving up everything and living a monastic life. There are different interpretations to renunciation. One is to renounce the "I" or the ego, abhinivesha, where you distinguish yourself from others, it's the discriminating ego that you must renounce. At least, that is one interpretation from Swami Muktananda, who learned from Swami Nityananda, who is trained in Kashmir Shaivism.

 

Maybe you should read Play of Consciousness by Swami Muktananda to get some insight into these things.

 

In any case, I don't believe you should renounce your family life right now. I think you should have the perspective that you have a family for a reason, that God guided you to this path, and you have to do your dharma and fulfill the obligations of householder. After your child is raised, you can do whatever you want as you've fulfilled your obligations to him. Until then, I think leaving your family can be construed as adharmic from certain perspectives.

 

This is the way the Vedic life was, you fulfill your duties and then devote the rest of your life to God. Of course, that doesn't stop you from remembering God in your daily life as well. Think of Shiva permeating the household, your son is Shiva, your wife is Shiva, or whatever. The food you eat is Shiva, everything is Shiva. In that way, I think you'll gain a stronger connection to God and do your dharma as well.

[Guest guest]

If you're a westener and interested in Saivism, then I suggest you get in touch with the organisation below. They are the Himalayan academy and they comprise of many people of different enthnic backgrounds particularly westeners who follow the Saiva Siddhanta school of thought. This movement was formed by an American convert to Saivism and are supportive to westeners who want to live a saivite hindu way of life.

 

If you have any questions they should be able to point you in the right direction. You may find one of their temples not far from where you are living.

 

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/ssc/

 

The Himalayan acedemy publishes Hinduism today - a quarlerly magazine about Hinduism that has a letters section where you can ask specific questions or discuss problems you may have with a Saivite monks.

[Guest guest]

dont listen to anything those iskcon ppl say about shiva being a deva, or in any way lower to krishna. they are all same and One!

 

all forms of god are one sanguna brahman!

 

keep that in mind! do not be swayed from wisdom!

 

secondly, THATS MAD COOL, how ur into shiva. i like that very much. but what i like doesnt matter. its what u like that matters.

 

u can check out that himalayan academy site, or you can go after siddha yoga. satguru shivaya subramanyaswami and swami muktananda respectively.

 

read their books, see how u feel, and pursue holy company - that means pursue company of those ppl who are enlightened and self-realized. they will tell u lots and will have answers for u. tell the enlightened person everything, b/c he is god in form of guru.

 

oh ya, then u'll have to choose a guru to be w/ , to learn from.

 

good luck on your spiritual journey!!!!

 

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA

[Guest guest]

w o r d

[Guest guest]

i am considering the idea of renucation but feel my wife would be crushed at me doing some thing so extreme from her point of view.

 

 

what i ment by this is; that my wife would be greatly upset at me leaving even after our child is grown and out of the home as the western idea of growing old together.

i know as time goes by sex and marrage wanes to pure friendship only. so it would be no diferent.

 

 

thank you for the posts.

 

the thing is when all is said and done. i will consider these posts and yes i have contacted the himalayan academy and have read their books. heck most of them are online free.

 

 

when i think of lord siva i think of him as my father and my king. when i think of krishan i think of him as a king and a friend. yes all are one.

siva is deva and devotee as he meditates on you while you meditate on him.

 

 

 

 

[Pankaja_Dasa 1]

 

 

didn't look like you visited the site I suggested..

 

You would have learnt a lot. Maybe in the next life...

[Guest guest]

{i am considering the idea of renucation but feel my wife would be crushed at me doing some thing so extreme from her point of view.]

 

She would be crushed, but as a matter of fact any Hindu wife would also be crushed if her husband wanted to renounce to become a monk or sanyassi. It's extreme to renounce when you're already married, even in Hinduism. In Hinduism we have 4 stages of life and it is either after Brahmcharya you decide to become a monk or you carry on with a normal life, with marriage and kids and become a householder. When you're kids have grown up and become independent you may consider to renounce and become a sanyassi. But this is very hard and most Hindus stay within the Vanaprastha stage until they die. But alot of old couples act as a spiritual partner to each other. A good example of a spiritual couple are of the Hindu saint -Sri Ramakrishna and his wife Sarada Devi. They were married and did all the normal duties a husband and wife do but were both on their own spiritual paths to the divine. There were also many Hindu sages who had wives, who didn't become Sanyassis. Provided your wife is interested in spirituality, this would be most recommended.

[Guest guest]

i looked at it many times before, the search option was down. pure bakti is a nice site.

[Pankaja_Dasa 1]

 

 

Siva-tattva. I think you need to e-mail them to get it. Or maybe a devotee will post it to you.

[Guest guest]

SO ARE THE FOLLOWERS OF THIS SANKACHARACHARIA THE SMARTAS?

ARE THESE FOLKS AT THE HIMALAYAN ACADEMY FOLLOWERS OF SANKARA?

 

SMARTAS PANDITS ARE THE ONES AT A LOCAL TEMPLE NEAR WHERE I LIVE.

I WOULD ASSUME THAT ATTENDING A SMARTA TEMPLE AND WORSHIPING AT ONE WOULD BE OFFENSIVE TO THE LORD.

 

HERE ARE SOME REFERANCES ABOUT SANKARA THE MONK.

 

 

 

Sankara (Shankara), Adi: One of Hinduism's most extraordinary monks (788-820) and pre-eminent guru of the Smarta Sampradaya. He is noted for his monistic philosophy of Advaita Vedanta and his many scriptural commentaries.

 

Smarta means a follower of classical smriti, particularly the Dharma Sastras, Puranas and Itihasas. Smartas revere the Vedas and honor the Agamas. Today this faith is synonymous with the teachings of Adi Sankara, the monk-philosopher known as shanmata sthapanacharya, "founder of the six-sect system." He campaigned India-wide to consolidate the Hindu faiths of his time under the banner of Advaita Vedanta. To unify the worship, he popularized the ancient Smarta five-Deity altar--Ganapati, Surya, Vishnu, Siva and Sakti--and added Kumara. From these, devotees may choose their "preferred Deity," or Ishta Devata. Each God is but a reflection of the one Saguna Brahman. Sankara organized hundreds of monasteries into a ten-order, dashanami system, which now has five pontifical centers. He wrote profuse commentaries on the Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Bhagavad Gita. Sankara proclaimed, "It is the one Reality which appears to our ignorance as a manifold universe of names and forms and changes. Like the gold of which many ornaments are made, it remains in itself unchanged. Such is Brahman, and That art Thou." Aum Namah Sivaya.

 

 

[Pankaja_Dasa 1]

 

 

God is always unchangeable and eternal. So this philosophy is athiestic. [Adi-shankara]. To reconsile this it is said that He was Shambu [Lord Shiva] In the guise of a Mayavadi or Impersonalistic Philosopher. He taught what is called 'covered Buddisum'. If you have read any Gaudiya Vedanta Books it is very easy to disern this fact.

 

 

[Guest guest]

i read what you requested of me. forgive my extreme ignorance. some thing deep and shocking happend while reading siva-tattva. i understand now the depth of my ignorance of lord siva and who i am. the visions nad dreams now are clear. i feel no shame in this, i have understanding of some of my actions and ideas now..

 

this my seem shocking to a few but; i fall at krishna lotus feet.....................

hare krishna

 

[Guest guest]

{SO ARE THE FOLLOWERS OF THIS SANKACHARACHARIA THE SMARTAS?

ARE THESE FOLKS AT THE HIMALAYAN ACADEMY FOLLOWERS OF SANKARA?}

 

Yes the Smartas are followers of Adi Shankaracharya. The folkes at the Himalayan Academy are NOT Smartas, they are Saivites. Their school of philosophy is Saiva Siddhanta.

 

You can find out more about Saiva Siddhanta here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saiva-Siddhanta

 

{I WOULD ASSUME THAT ATTENDING A SMARTA TEMPLE AND WORSHIPING AT ONE WOULD BE OFFENSIVE TO THE LORD.}

 

How can it be offensive to the lord? You can worship God in any form at a Smarta temple, including lord Shiva.

[Guest guest]

are you a part of them and follower of Srila

BV Narayana Maharaja ?

[Guest guest]

so if one worships siva understand that siva and krishna-vishnu are the same, as long as one is a good and pure devotte does it matter the name and method of worship is ones ishta-deva?

 

does one recieve that same result as worshiping krishna if one is worshiping siva properly and with pure heart?

[Guest guest]

{this my seem shocking to a few but; i fall at krishna lotus feet}

 

*LOL* It looks like have a joker on board!

 

Choosing to put your name in capitals this time, when it was never in capitals before was not a good move. Impersonation an unregistered user folls nobody but yourself. So all of a sudden, you fell at Krishna's lotus feet...yeah...sure!

[Pankaja_Dasa 1]

 

 

Read more from the site:)

[Guest guest]

eh i am not worried about the REDHEAD.

 

anyways. i am not compleatly convinced about saivite worship that is why i am posting here. perhaps my ingnorance of saivite worship is why i have reservations about it and not understanding why i felt the way i did is why i am not compleatly convinced.

perhaps it is the ISCON issues that why i was not into krishna.

 

i have to really undersand more before i begin.

one thing i do know is; i am not religion surfing or that non-sense that bothers me. i just want to do right by the lord. perhaps this siva attachment is from a past life with him as my guru and vishnu my ishtadeva.

 

does it matter in the long run? yes and no.

 

one thing i do know is saivites have no issues with vishnavas worship so why would i? why woudl siva have an issue with my devoting my worship to vishnu?

 

i have read that the worship of krishna is a fast track to liberation or moshka.

 

i am all ears...

[Guest guest]

Suddenly lord shiva became ur guru instead of ishta-deva.I am surprised to see how people change in flick second...keep it up..

[Guest guest]

I am not an ISKON member. Nor, do I think, I want to be one. If God means for me to be an ISKON member, I'll become one, someway or other however. I just find most ISKCON memebers' reliance on scriptures to prove or disprove certain theological issues to be alarming and rather misguided.

 

 

By the way, I'm also perturbed by the way you keep dismissing what others do for their own spiritual connections. You have no say in what they do, nor do you have a right to dismiss them so openly. If you do not think that is ego, you are sorely mistaken. This is spiritual vanity, and such vanity will still lead to maya swallowing you. It's important not to judge others who are looking for their own path. There's nothing wrong with people asking the Lord for something they need to move on in their lives. It's a matter of connecting to God, a preliminary step that helps build a bond between the person and God that will propel the person ideally to spiritually advance. And most of those who "religion-surf" are also looking for a connection to God that they can identify with. Of course there are a lot of dilettantes out there, who surf for religions as if they're changing clothes or something, but there are those who are genuine and need something to connect with. There is nothing wrong with religion-surfing to find what they look for in a religion. It may help them form conclusions about their own religion, gain a better understanding of other religions, and maybe even help them form a connection with God.

 

After all, you're a westerner and you're here. You may have had visions of Shiva to guide you, but consider yourself fortunate, many do not have such clear callings to guide them.

 

"one thing i do know is saivites have no issues with vishnavas worship so why would i? why woudl siva have an issue with my devoting my worship to vishnu?

 

i have read that the worship of krishna is a fast track to liberation or moshka"

 

First off, you are trying to go the "safe road" here, which is something tantamount to saying, "Well Christians say worshipping any other Lord other than Jehovah and/or Jesus Christ will send me to hell, and no other non-Abrahamic religion says that if you worship other Gods other than the ones in their faith, you'll go to Hell, so I might as well worship an Abrahamic God." That just doesn't make sense, you're trying to develop a connection with God, not buy a car.

 

Also, ISKCON members would like you to believe that worship of Krishna is a fast track to liberation or moksha, but that is not necessarily true. It really depends on the spiritual aspirant. It seems like you are off to a good start as far as obtaining mystical visions of Shiva, and dreams of Shiva. Your calling, if you have one, is most likely Shiva. Your strong connection is with Shiva. If you betray that connection to worship Krishna, you may take much longer to build a bond with him than you already seem to have with Shiva. When you pray or meditate, it's only effective when you have strong feeling for the Lord. The Lord can tell of your sincerity, and if you worship Krishna just like that, in the beginning you will have a LOT of trouble establishing that sincerity. It means you'll have to start over with your connection to the Lord, as it is not something so easily transferable unless you have the conviction that all is one god. If you believe in dualism, as you appear to, then worship of form does matter for your spiritual progress. Hinduism has no conception of hell as a permanent resting place, only a temporary one, and worshipping a God, even a false one, won't bring you to hell. Doing adharma will have the potential to drag you into hell though.

 

So my best advice would be to either worship Shiva if you believe in Shiva, or whoever you believe in. Don't worry about the form, as only one of two things will happen in my opinion: if Krishna is behind all things and all is not one, you'll start worshipping Krishna after having reached Shiva. Or you'll have the same results people have with worshipping Krishna, Allah, Jehova, etc. Meaning you achieve God, because all is truly one.

[redhead 0]

to all who have posted to me, i am considering it all. the ones insulting my posts /images/graemlins/blush.gif <font color="brown"> </font color> were correct to some degree but i know that i know a lot and enough to know that i know very little, aka the more you know the more your know what you dont know. today i emailed Srila BV Narayana Maharaja and i got an answer back tonite. i am going to see him at a fest in florida. i asked him if we could talk and i was honest and he said i am very welcome to meet with him and i am seriously considering taking diksha from him as he said yes to me recieving harenama-diksha even after what i said about siva. from what i have read is devotees of rama typically worship siva for a year. also isnt it true the hanuman is and incarnation of siva and hanuman served lore rama? in the geeta lord krishna said of the rudras i am siva. so if you all want to insult me about this go ahead. but after reading alot and considering things, i have to say that siva is a expantion of krishna.

 

from what i see the supreme personality of godhead is lord krishna and siva is the ultamate devotee and my attraction to him is perhaps many many lifetimes ago perhaps he was my guru or i have been tricked by my ego or i am delutional or deluded by maya.

 

if anyone is bothered at this please dont bother to post to insult me , but if your have advice or well wishes i welcome them.

 

oh and what i said about krishna as a fast track was a comment not my opinion i am sorry about the confusion, my english is poor when writing as english is my second tongue. if i was talking instead of typing i think i could articuate what i we really trying to relay to you on the forum.

 

thank you too all even those that insulted me as i try so very heard to see all with as much eqanimity as i can in with my very low degree of spiritual attainment so far.

i also thing that the dreams nad vision i had were because i am so ignorent and faithless that god had to get in my face and prove he is real.

 

thank your all and thank you for helping me to get some direction. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Guest guest]

Siva and Lord Krishna never same. Lord sweet Krishna is Supreme, Siva worships Lord Krishn. Worship demigod you get poor results.

 

 

so if one worships siva understand that siva and krishna-vishnu are the same, as long as one is a good and pure devotte does it matter the name and method of worship is ones ishta-deva?

 

does one recieve that same result as worshiping krishna if one is worshiping siva properly and with pure heart?

[SIKapadia 0]

 

i am wondering if any one could help me a bit.

i am a very ignorent westerner that was ina past life a saivite, i have had dreams and mystial visions of siva and durga. i am not worried about the dream as i know what they mean; i have a higher calling to reclaim my roots asa hindu.

i have been to smarta temple and harekrishna temple. but i am attracted to siva and durga mainly. though i really love krishan and rada but i cant see my self as a krishna devotee as i have had connection with siva since i was small child. i was 5 when i had visions of him when awake, my poor mother a buddhist had some issues with my visions and attraction to hinduism, i was 7-8 years old and litterly wanted to be a monk. i am 33 years old now i have married and have a child so that is not possible for 12 more years at least. i am considering the idea of renucation but feel my wife would be crushed at me doing some thing so extreme from her point of view.

i am one of those that has such a high IQ (high genius/savant)that i am frusterated with any form of schooling and study, it is like my mind is on overdrive at times. allmost all my material desires have been exausted as i have all i need in life materially.

i want to worship siva but i am highly frusterated at the daunting task of it.

is a serious regiment of japa of siva mantram and meditation on the lord enough for a person that is a meat eating, smoking, lazy american at least untill i am ready to really dive in to devotion to the lord?

i really do not want anything from the lord as i have all i need except i know that i harbor lust for women though i am married and anger at the world around me as i see some must insanity. i have no desire to do anything for personaly benifit except pleasing the lord.

i read that people worship siva to gain boons and material desires, that puts me off alot. as i only want to please the lord out of pure love. i read the tales of old about devotees that have pure love for the lord and i tear up and feel so wonderful.

i have been to a hare krishna temple and like and respect them there but i do not get the extreme emotional surges as i do when i see a shrine of lord siva and ganesha. i feel like i am not worthy of even the site of the lord. but since i have many dreams and spritual visions involving siva i feel connected to the siva aspect of the lord. krishna and rama are wonderful but there acpect of of the lord do not make me feel like i do when seeing a shiva and ganesha icon and shrine.

i honestly feel like a ignorent child and fear the consept of doing puja to siva. i am afraid and i know better. i would like some advice on worship of siva as he is my ishtadeva.

would even a vishnava pandit help me? there is alot near my home as a huge temple is blocks from my home.