I have already said that when ideology is totally reflected in a personality, that very personality is worshipped as a divine personality, a god. Ordinary people follow His instructions; they want to be guided by His will, because they experience bliss by moving in this way. Krśńa said,

Yad yadácarati shreśt́hastad tadevetaráh janáh;
Sa yad pramáńaḿ kurute lokastadanuvarttate.

[The common masses faithfully follow whatever great people do; they follow the examples set by great personalities.]

In the age of Shiva, towards the end of Shiva’s lifetime, the Aryan and the non-Aryan communities admitted the supremacy of Shiva. There were no longer conflicts between the Aryans and the non-Aryans regarding the issue of deities; there was no difference of opinion as to which great personality should be respected. Shiva was accepted as the supreme personality in the Vedas, and as such was considered a god. In the Vedic Age, people who worshipped the Vedic gods and goddesses accepted Shiva as one of them, and started worshipping Him and generally following His instructions. They used to follow only the ritualistic portions of the Vedas (the yajiṋas) and followed Shiva in all other matters. But those who did not follow even these ritualistic portions of the Vedas but followed Shiva in all matters were called Shaeva Tántriks [followers of Shiva Tantra].

Perhaps you know that in the Vedas, the Tantras, and partly in Post-Shiva Tantra, particular gods were worshipped with specific biija mantras [acoustic roots]. Shiva was not worshipped with any particular acoustic root during His own time, in Shiva Tantra, because the people considered Shiva so much their own, so intimate with them, that they did not feel the necessity to worship Him with the help of any acoustic root. And Shiva really did become one of them. Thus they did not depend on any acoustic root to invoke Him. The then followers of the Vedas accepted the supremacy of Shiva, but their relation with Him was not so intimate. As I have already said, there was no system of idol worship in those days, but they used to accept Shiva as their deity of transmutation – as the transmutational principle.⁽¹⁾ The people in those days used m [the sound “mm”] as the acoustic root for the process of transmutation, the process of metamorphosis. Thus they used m to indicate anything concerned with Shiva.

Although Shiva was accepted in the Vedic Age, He himself did not follow the Vedic cult. He accepted only the Tantric cult and adhered to it very strictly, and persuaded others to do the same. You know that the Jain religion was introduced a little more than two thousand years ago, but the Shiva Cult is much older than the Jain religion. Some people claim that the Tiirthauṋkars (the original Jain prophets) existed even before the advent of Vardhamán Maháviira; they propagated Jainism, but it was undoubtedly long after Shiva. When Jainism was spreading in India, Shiva had already become a god of the people; He had penetrated into all walks of Indian life and become intimately associated with each and every aspect of social life. This was not only because of His extraordinary personality and genius, but because of His pervasive influence in all spheres of human life. Though Jainism is quite old, and efforts were made to propagate it, the people of that age accepted it only superficially. Jainism received quite a good response in India, particularly in the Ráŕh area, but

Shaeva Dharma [Shaivism] maintained its existence like a subterranean flow in the people’s minds.

Perhaps many of you know that Jainism is divided into several branches, and the two main branches are Digamvara and Shvetámvara. By historical research, it has been found that Jainism is mainly Digamvara.⁽²⁾ But later a time came when the Nirgranthaváda of Digamvara Jainism (granthi means “knot”, so nirgranthi means “not using the knots of clothes” – that is why the doctrine was known as “Digamvara”) was not appreciated by the householders, and it was primarily they who introduced the Shvetámvara doctrine, although Jainism is primarily Digamvara. Later this Nirgranthaváda of Jainism was associated with Shaivism. People were outwardly Digamvara Jain, but in the core of their hearts they were Shaivites. All the idols of Digamvara Tiirthauṋkars which have been found are naked. Now let us move to another topic.

In the prehistoric age, before even the Vedic Age started, people used to follow the system of phallic worship. I have mentioned in my book on Ráŕh that in those days there were severe conflicts among the different clans. They were never secure, neither at night nor during the day; so they always wanted to increase their numbers. Thus they worshipped the phallus as the symbol of their earnest desire to multiply. This phallic worship was more or less in vogue in almost all the countries of the world, not just in one particular country. Phallic worship was common in India, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia, and also widely prevalent in Central America – that is, in the southern part of North America and northern part of South America. Some think that this phallic worship was brought to America from India during the Shriishaelendra Empire of Andhra under the Pahlava, Pandya, and Chol Dynasties of South India. The phallus worshippers of Central America belonged to the Mayan civilization; thus America is called Máyádviipa in Sanskrit [Mayan Island]. However, the fact is that those people followed this phallic worship from prehistoric times more as a social custom than as a spiritual or philosophic cult. In the Jain age, the naked idols of the Tiirthauṋkars aroused a new thought in the minds of the people, and thus for the first time phallic worship was introduced as part of the spiritual cult of Digamvara Jainism. Shaeva Dharma existed side by side with Digamvara Jainism; alongside the Jain and Buddhist doctrines, there existed Shiva Tantra⁽³⁾ also in a metamorphosed form, which may be designated as Post-Shiva Tantra. In this way the worship of Shiva-liuṋga [phallic worship] was introduced in Post-Shiva Tantra through the influence of Jainism. Thus the prehistoric phallic worship, being associated with a newer spiritual awareness and philosophical outlook, produced a new trend of thought. (It should be remembered that metaphysics had already emerged by that time, for Jainism and Buddhism were propounded after the great sage Maharśi Kapila.) Thus the worship of Shiva-liuṋga was introduced about 2500 years ago. But the phallic worship of the pre-historic age, and the worship of Shiva-liuṋga in medieval India (around 2250 years ago), were not the same. The latter, invested with a novel philosophical and spiritual significance, awakened a new trend of human thought. The people of that time started worshipping Shiva-liuṋga with a new outlook, just as they gave new significance to the Tiirthauṋkaras. The intention behind the prehistoric phallic worship, as I have already said, was the worshippers’ earnest desire to increase their numbers – because they had to fight day and night to survive. But in later times, when Shiva-liun-ga worship was introduced in Jain Tantra, Buddhist Tantra, and Post-Shiva Tantra, it received a new interpretation, Liuṋgate gamyate yasmin talliuṋgam [“The entity [[from which all things originate and]] towards which all things are moving is liuṋgam”]. All the psychic flows and existential vibrations are flowing in the mahákásha, the mahávyoma [the eternal void], and these vibrational expressions will finally terminate in that Supreme Principle of Transmutation, that Supreme Metamorphosis. So this Shiva-liuṋga is the final destination of all expressions, the culminating point of all existence. Thus the mode of worship of Shiva-liuṋga was altogether transformed.

Now this worship of Shiva-liuṋga which began in the age of Jainism spread throughout every fibre of Indian life. In this new style of Shiva worship, both the dhyána mantra⁽⁴⁾ and biija mantra of Shiva were changed. Now it is necessary to explain this biija mantra. All the phenomena, all the vibrational expressions in this universe have colour and sound. The human eye may be unable to perceive those subtle colours, and the human ear unable to catch those subtle sounds, but their existence cannot be denied just because of human inability to perceive them. Many animals and birds can perceive subtle vibrations and understand things which humans cannot for instance, the olfactory capacity of tigers and dogs is far greater than that of human beings. Often dogs can identify miscreants by their smell. Each and every expression has its own sound, and the collection of all sounds is oṋḿkára – a-u-m. A [the sound “uh”] is the acoustic root of creation, and u [the sound “oo”] is the acoustic root of operation, and m is the acoustic root of destruction. The sound created by a particular vibration is called its “acoustic root” in Latin. The concept of so-called gods and goddesses is based on these acoustic vibrations, the sound expressions which emanate from the Supreme Consciousness and flow in various directions. This is the science behind the acoustic roots.

The acoustic root of Shiva as mentioned in the Vedas was m [the sound “mm”]. I have already said that no acoustic root was necessary for the worship of Shiva [during His own time] because He was so intimate with all people. But in the age of Jain Tantra, Buddhist Tantra, and Post-Shiva Tantra, the acoustic root became aeḿ. This ae vowel is also an acoustic root.

If we analyse this aum-sound,⁽⁵⁾ we find fifty root-sounds, and these root sounds are all within the vast spectrum of eternal time. Within this spectrum there are infinite undulations of the waves of time. Time is nothing but the mental measurement of the motivity of action. Whenever there is action, there is motivity. Time is not an unbroken flow, but consists of disjointed elements. These elements are so closely connected that they seem to become one integral whole although actually it is not continuous. However, these fifty separate emanations are all sustained by this so-called temporal factor. These are: a, á, i, ii, u, ú… kśa.⁽⁶⁾ So the alphabet is called akśa or akśamálá [málá means “garland”] – it is conceived as a garland of fifty letters.

During the time of the Atharvaveda it was thought that these fifty letters are being sustained by the time factor. I have already said that this conception of the Atharvaveda was wrong because the time factor is not an integral whole but a series of many separate entities. So these fifty letters of the oṋm sound are combined in the time factor. In the age of the Atharvaveda, people learned to read and write, although there was no system for writing the Vedas in black and white. Thus it was conceived that the time factor had put on the fifty letters in a garland, and each letter was symbolized by a human face. The letter a was kept in the hand because a is the acoustic root of creation, and the rest of the letters (á to kśa) were put in the garland of Bhadrakálii – a goddess of the Atharvaveda. It has been said:

Yata shona karńapute sabái Máyer mantra bat́e
Kálii paiṋcáshat varńamayii varńe varńe viráj kare.

[Whatever you hear is the incantative rhythm of the Divine Mother – the goddess Kálii – and consists of these fifty letters.]

You understand that this Bhadrakálii [a concept of the Atharvaveda which features the fifty letters] is not an integral whole either, but an aggregate of partial entities; so this is also a wrong concept from the philosophical point of view.⁽⁷⁾

Now, the letter ae (one of the twelve vowels) is called the vágbhava biija [acoustic root of speech]. A sprout emerges from every seed, and the seed from which the sprout of wisdom emerges is called the seed of the spiritual guide, the guru; so aeḿ came to be the acoustic root of the guru. Shiva was generally accepted as the guru. So in the age of Jain, Buddhist and Post-Shiva Tantra, aeḿ became accepted as the acoustic root of Shiva. The incantative rhythm of Shiva’s worship became Aeḿ Shiváya namah. But in the Vedic Age it was m.

Now let us consider the Jain Shiva. Nowadays large-size Shiva-liuṋgas are being excavated in different parts of India, especially in the Ráŕh area. These are images either of the Jain Shiva or of the Shiva of the Post-Shiva Tantra of the Jain Age. In that age, there was intensive cultivation of knowledge throughout India. People considered this aeḿ (the root of wisdom and speech) to be an ideal acoustic root for knowledge. A long time later, when the worship of Sarasvatii, the goddess of learning, was introduced, she was given the same acoustic root (aeḿ – the acoustic root of speech). Aeḿ Sarasvatyae namah [“Salutations to the goddess Sarasvatii”].

Thus far I have been talking about the Jain Shiva. The Jain Shiva has not been accepted in Shaeva Dharma but is accepted in Jain society because it was impossible to establish any doctrine without the influence of Shiva. In later times, Jain society was divided into different sections and sub-sections, and it influenced the contemporary Post-Shiva Tantra also. And then divisions arose regarding the worship of Shiva, and also differences of opinion about the system of Shiva-liuṋga worship which had been practised since the Jain period. Some special types of Shiva-liuṋga were called jyotirliuṋga, other types were called ádiliuṋga, others were called anádiliuṋga – thus there were many different branches of Jainism, each with its own Shiva-liuṋga and its own style of worship. Another distinct type of Shiva-liuṋga is the Váńaliuṋga, but it was of a much later period, the Puranic Age. King Vána, the monarch of north Bengal (then called Varendrabhúmi), invented the Váńaliuṋga Shiva. In this way, the worship of Shiva underwent many changes in the Jain Age.

Now, the followers of Jainism are all vegetarians. The followers of Shiva are also vegetarians. But the Shiva Cult was more practical and thus it became the valuable asset of human beings, while Jainism became estranged from the people because of its impractical nature. For example, according to Jainism, tilling the land is not permitted because it would kill many worms and insects, thereby violating the principle of non-violence. But Shaeva Dharma is quite practical. Lord Shiva said Varttamáneśu vartteta [“Live in the present”]. In other words, “Never ignore the practical realities of life.” So even in the age of Jainism, the followers of the Shiva Cult used to cultivate the land, because to refrain from agriculture was not common sense. Again, the followers of Jainism covered their faces with a piece of cloth so that insects might not enter their noses and die. The followers of the Shiva Cult did not do such things, and they even fought if necessary, for they strictly followed the instructions of Shiva. There was much similarity between these two cultures, but in comparison with the culture of Shiva, the Jain culture had some serious drawbacks.

Now let us consider the Buddhist Shiva. Just as Shiva was worshipped in the age of Jain culture and Jainism influenced Post-Shiva Tantra and was also influenced by it, the same thing occurred in the Buddhist Age.

The Buddhist Age and the Jain Age occurred simultaneously. Lord Maháviira was about fifty years older than Lord Buddha. There was a pervasive influence of Maháyána Buddhism in some parts of India, China and Tibet. At that time, the Maháyána branch of Buddhism split into two sections, both of which embraced Tantric culture. The Shiva of Post-Shiva Tantra was accepted in Buddhist Tantra, and the followers of the latter also preferred to worship the Shiva-liuṋga instead of worshipping idols of Shiva.

You should remember that there is no mention of the worship of Shiva-liuṋga in the dhyána mantra of Shiva. From this it is clear that the worship of Shiva-liuṋga was introduced much later.

Because of the vast popularity of Shiva, He could not be neglected even in the Buddhist Age, and the worship of the Shiva idol or Shiva-liuṋga was accepted, only with a little difference. Shiva was not accepted as a perfect god. He was accepted as a bodhisattva, and a small image of Buddha was affixed to the image of Shiva. In some cases, a small image of Buddha was attached to the head of the image of Shiva at the time of Shiva’s worship. The intention was to make it clear that Shiva was not a perfect god. He was a bodhisattva, and it was Buddha who was the goal of worship for Shiva. This kind of Bodhisattva Shiva became Bat́uka Bhaerava, then Boŕo Shiva, then Buŕo Shiva [Old Shiva], at a later time.

In the remote villages of Bengal, many temples of Buŕo Shiva are found. These images of Buŕo Shiva are from the Buddhist Age. The worship of this Buddhist Shiva was widely popular on the eastern side of the Himalayas, in Tibet, and in some parts of Bengal; it was introduced in Bengal during the days of Vajrayána Buddhism.

It would not be irrelevant to say that though Vajrayána was prevalent in India, Tibet and a considerable part of China, the centre or the controlling point of it was a village named VajraYoginii of Vikrampur of Dhaka district. A Chinese ácárya [spiritual teacher] of Buddhist Tantra lived there, named Pháhá-u-cá. This village and Vikrampur are still existing. The history of Vikrampur goes back much earlier than the Puranic Age. If I ever narrate the history of Baḿga-Dabák [southern Bangladesh], many things are to be said about this Vikrampur. In the age of Buddhist Tantra, the name of Vikrampur was Vikram Mańipur – not Vikrampur. Oṋḿ mańipadme hum was the mantra of Vajrayánii Buddhism. The name Vikram Mańipur has been derived from this Mańipadma Mantra.

Anyway, Shiva was worshipped as a bodhisattva in the Buddhist Age. At that time a small idol of Buddha was set on the head of the image of Shiva or on the Shiva-liuṋga. The acoustic root of this Buddhist Shiva, the Jain Shiva and the Shiva of Post-Shiva Tantra was aeḿ. This aeḿ is the acoustic root of speech and hearing, the root from which all knowledge springs.

Then came the Shiva Cult and Shákta Cult of the Puranic Age. In this age also, the worship of Shiva continued. The Puranic concept of Shiva was the consolidation of the worship of the twenty-two varieties of Shiva-liuṋga, including the jyotirliuṋga, the anádiliuṋga, the ádiliuṋga, etc., plus the Shiva-liuṋga of King Vána. But the interesting thing is that the Shiva of this Puranic Age was quite different from the Shiva of Jain, Buddhist, or Post-Shiva Tantra. Consequently the acoustic root of Shiva also changed from aeḿ to haoḿ. The acoustic root of the Puranic Shiva became Haoḿ Shiváya namah.

The concept of a deity must change if there is a change in its acoustic root. So Sadáshiva, the very shelter of human life for seven thousand years, and this Shiva of the Jain, Buddhist or Post-Shiva Tantra, are not the same person.

There is another interesting thing which people generally ignore. You will notice that when Buddhism was gradually transformed into Puranic Shaivism, that transitional period was the age of the Nátha Cult. The word nátha [lord] used to be appended to the names of the prophets of the Nátha Cult, for instance Ádinátha, Miinanátha, Matsyendra-nátha (who invented Matsyendrásana), Gorakśanátha, Gohiniinátha, and Caoraungiinátha (after whom Chowringee street in Calcutta has been named). These were the spiritual teachers of the Nátha Cult.

This Nátha Cult was the result of the synthesis between Buddhist Tantra and the Puranic Shiva Cult. All the masters of the Nátha Cult were considered as avatáras [incarnations] of Shiva; that is, after the death of these masters, people made idols of them and worshipped them in the temples as incarnations of Shiva. Thus just as the word nátha was appended to the names of the masters, it was also appended to the names of Shiva when He was worshipped – for instance, Tárakanátha, Vaedyanátha, Vishvanátha, etc.

These deities were the objects of worship for the followers of the Nátha Cult; they had nothing to do with the Sadáshiva of seven thousand years ago. There was a vast time gap of about 5500 years between the two. Although in the Shiva Cult and the Shákta Cult of the Puranic Age people continued the worship of Shiva-liuṋga, they used to append the word iishvara [controller or lord] to the names of Shiva just to differentiate their Shiva from the Shiva of the Nátha Cult. For instance, Tárakeshvara, Vishveshvara, Rámeshvara, etc. Sometimes they used to name Shiva with the addition of both nátha, in the manner of the Nátha Cult followers, and iishvara, in the manner of the Puranic Shiva Cult. For instance, they would say either, or both, Tárakanátha or Tarákeshvara, Vishvanátha or Vishveshvara. (But the Vaedyanátha of Deoghar cannot be called Vaedyeshvara.)

From this one can easily distinguish which Shiva was worshipped by which cult – which was worshipped by the Nátha Cult followers, and which by the Puranic Shiva Cult followers.

Saoráśt́re Somanathaiṋca,
Shriishaela Mallikárjunám;
Ujjayinyáḿ Mahákálaḿ,
Oṋḿkáramamaleshvaram.

[Shiva of Saurashtra is called Somanátha; in Shriishaela He is Mallikárjunam; in Ujjayinyá He is Mahákálaḿ, and in Oṋḿkárnáth He is Amaleshvaram.]

Again it is said:

Váráńasyáḿ Vishvanáthah,
Setubandhe Rámeshvarah;
Jháŕakhańd́e Vaedyanáthah,
Ráŕhe ca Tárakeshvarah.

[He is known as Vishvanátha in Varanasi, as Rámeshvara in Setubandha, as Vaedyanátha in Jharakhańd́a, and as Tárakeshvara in Ráŕh.]

This is how Shiva is variously worshipped by the followers of different cults. In some places He is addressed as nátha by the followers of the Nátha Cult, in other places as iishvara by the followers of the Puranic Shiva Cult. The acoustic root for Shiva in all these cases is haoḿ, and as there has been a change in the acoustic root, this Shiva is not the Shiva of seven thousand years ago.

Footnotes

(1) Editors’ note: That is, that Shiva was the one fundamental substance of the universe which was transmuted into the various forms of creation.

(2) Editors’ note: That is, the followers of Jainism did not use clothes. (Amvara means “clothes”, and dik means “direction”, so digamvara means that people will remain uncovered, just as the natural directions do.)

(3) Editors’ note: “Shaeva Dharma” can be a general term for the system which Shiva gave, or can refer especially to the philosophical side of the system. “Shaeva Tantra” refers primarily to the applied side of the system.

(4) Editors’ note: See Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti, Namah Shiváya Shántáya, Discourse 20.

(5) Editors’ note: Also spelled oṋm.

(6) Editors’ note: That is, the fifty sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet, beginning with the first vowel a and ending with the last consonant kśa.

(7) Editors’ note: The partial entities are not conceived as becoming unified in one Infinite Entity.