Shiva
Shiva is a very old god in the Hindu pantheon, and is known as the Great Destroyer. However, Shaivites worship him as being all three aspects as well as “non-dual,” thus giving him the title of Mahadeva (Great God). In his ancient origins from the Indus Valley he was associated with a bull, and other symbols of fertility, as well as with a terrifying god of death called Rudra. However, in regards to Shiva it is written that “his name means ‘the favorable’ or ‘the benevolent’ and was meant to propitiate a dangerous deity who breathes pestilence and death.” (New Larousse Encyclopedia Of Mythology, 1968:342)
As the Destroyer, Shiva rules over the state of death. In depictions he is seen sometimes wearing a necklace of skulls as the overseer of demons. However, in the transcendent state, this death symbolizes the cremation of the ego of the spiritual seeker. Shiva is also “the prince of ascetics, and his worshipers follow an essentially ascetic discipline…[for when] he remains in eternal meditation—the motionless center of movement.’’ (New Larousse Encyclopedia Of Mythology, 1968:221) In this guise one can see the third eye on his forehead and the matted hair of the ascetic, of which its many strands represent the sacred Ganges River, where devout Hindus bathe themselves ritually.
In the oldest traditions, Shiva renews after destroying, and he is worshipped as the principle of continuity in the ancient form of the “lingam,” which is a smooth, phallic-formed rock. The symbol of the yoni (the vaginal opening) is associated in Mahadevi—the one great Mother Goddess from ancient goddess cults in India. Among one of her names is Parvati, wife of Shiva and goddess of love and procreation. Parvati is also the mother of the popular, benevolent god, the elephant-headed Ganesha.
In many popular images, Shiva is portrayed as the Mahadeva with all the attributes of the Trimurti. She is the Dancing Shiva, “dancing within a circle (or ellipse) bordered with flames, which signify the illusory, transitory nature of the world.” (Religions Of The World, 1969:423) He has four arms and hands, and stands on one foot. In the left hand is a flame, signifying the temporal nature of life, death and change. The other left hand points to the raised left leg and signifies grace in attaining “moksha” and “release from the world of time and change, of karma and samsara.” In one of the right hands of the dancing Shiva is a drum. This represents his creation of the illusory world which “has its source in the rhythmic pattern of Shiva’s drum and dance.” (Religions Of The World, 1969:425) The other right hand is an upraised palm, a gesture of reassurance inviting the lack of fear resulting from not identifying with the world of the senses but rather the Ultimate Reality. The Dancing Shiva stands on the body of a demon dwarf Muyalaka, who symbolizes time and illusion, so that he both crushes evil and ignorance while raising his left leg in liberation from its power.