Tag: Lingam

On April 14,2014,I wrote an article Shiva Linga,Penis Phallus of Shiva,Rubbish

In that article I explained how there is no basis for this outrageous interpretation of Hinduism in general and Shaivites in particular.

I also explained the basic concept of Shiva.

While there have been general acceptance of what I have expressed ,there were a few who hold the view that Lingam is Phallus and their refrain is that the practice is followed by the Tantra Shastra.

Those who say this need to understand Tantra Shastra in detail.

1.Though there are practices in Tantra where Yoni (females genital organ) and Male organ is worshipped and copulation is also practiced,one should know these practices do not have the sanction of the Vedas.

2.These practices are called Vaamachaara,the left handed path and are set aside by Acharyas like Adi Shankaracharya.

3. In practices indulged by  one, he is beyond sensual pleasure and performs these acts with total detachment,fixing mind on Reality.This is a rare case.

Many,deluding themselves that they are practicing Tantra for Realization follow this path only to pleasure themselves. I have seen cases like this,where the practitioner ends up a lunatic.

Though there are specific practices like Kaula Marga,the discipline needed to practice vairaagya,determination and mental strength is way beyond most of us.

It is akin to saying that if you ask yourself ‘Who Am I?’,you become a Ramana Maharishi!

So if you want to follow Hinduism,better read original texts and understand Hinduism in all aspects.

Now as to how this ridiculous calling of Shiva “Linga as Phallus.

One is not sure where or how this started.

I am providing information on this here.

First,the misinformation.

Wikipedia write up consists of  this;

“British missionary William Ward criticized the worship of the lingam (along with virtually all other Indian religious rituals) in his influential 1815 book A View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos, calling it “the last state of degradation to which human nature can be driven”, and stating that its symbolism was “too gross, even when refined as much as possible, to meet the public eye.” According to Brian Pennington, Ward’s book “became a centerpiece in the British construction of Hinduism and in the political and economic domination of the subcontinet.’

‘

In 1825 Horace Hayman Wilson’s work on the lingayat sect of South India attempted to refute British notions that the lingam graphically represented a human organ and that it aroused erotic emotions in its devotees.

Monier-Williams wrote in Brahmanism and Hinduism that the symbol of linga is “never in the mind of a Shaiva (or Shiva-worshipper) connected with indecent ideas, nor with sexual love”.In contrast, Jeaneane Fowler believes the linga is “a phallic symbol which represents the potent energy which is manifest in the cosmos”.Some scholars, including David James Smith, believe that throughout its history the lingam has represented the phallus; others, including N. Ramachandra Bhatt, believe the phallic interpretation to be a later addition.M.K.V. Narayan distinguishes the Siva-linga from anthropomorphic representations of Shiva, and notes its absence from Vedic literature, and its interpretation as a phallus in Tantric sources...

Atharva Veda on Linga.

‘There is a hymn in the Atharvaveda that praises a pillar (Sanskrit: stambha), and this is one possible origin of linga worship.  Some associate Shiva-Linga with this Yupa-Stambha, the sacrificial post. In the hymn, a description is found of the beginning-less and endless Stambha or Skambha, and it is shown that the said Skambha is put in place of the eternal Brahman. The sacrificial fire of the Yajna, its smoke, ashes and flames, the soma plant, and the ox that used to carry the wood for the Vedic sacrifice, gave rise to the conceptions of the brightness of Shiva’s body, his tawny matted hair, his blue throat, and the riding on the bull of the Shiva. The Yupa-Skambha gave place in time to the Shiva-Linga.^[11][12] In the Linga Purana the same hymn is expanded in the shape of stories meant to establish the glory of the great Stambha and the supreme nature of Mahâdeva (the Great God, Shiva).

Swami Vivekanada’s views.

At the Paris Congress of the History of Religions in 1900, Ramakrishna’s follower Swami Vivekananda argued that the Shiva-Linga had its origin in the idea of the Yupa-Stambha or Skambha, the sacrificial post, idealized in Vedic ritual as the symbol of the Eternal Brahman. This interpretation was in response to a paper read by Gustav Oppert, a German Orientalist, who traced the origin of the Shalagrama-Shila and the Shiva-Linga to phallicism.According to Vivekananda, the explanation of the Shalagrama-Shila as a phallic emblem was an imaginary invention. Vivekananda argued that this explanation of the Shiva-Linga as a phallic emblem was brought forward by the most thoughtless, and was forthcoming in India in her most degraded times, those of the downfall of Buddhism.’

Shiva Upasna Mantra.

Om Shambhave Namah.
Namaste astu bhagavan vishveshvaraya mahadevaya tryambakaya tripurantakaya trikagni kalaya kalagnirudraya nilakanthaya mrutyunjayaya sarveshvaraya Sadashivaya shriman mahadevaya namah.
Om Nidhanapataye Namah Nidhanapatantikaya Namah
Urdhvaya Namah Urdhvalingaya Namah
Hiranyaya Namah Hiranyalingaya Namah
Suvarnaya Namah Suvarnalingaya Namah
Divyaya Namah Divyalingaya Namah
Bhavaya Namah Bhavalingaya Namah
Sarvaya Namah Sarvalingaya Namah
Shivaya Namah Shivalingaya Namah
Jwalaya Namah Jwalalingaya Namah
Atmaya Namah Atmalingaya Namah
Paramaya Namah Paramalingaya Namah
Etath Somasya Suryasya Sarvalingaga
Sthapayati Panimantram Pavitram
Sadyo jatam prapadyami sadyojatayavai namo namah
Bhave bave naati bhave bhavasmamam bhavodbhavaya namah
Vama devaya namo jyesthaya nama shresthaya namo
Rudraya nama kalaya nama kalavikaranaya namo
Balavikaranaya namo balaya namo balapramathanaya namah
Sarva bhoota damanaya namo manonmanaya namah
Aghorebhyo thagorebhyo ghora ghora tharebhyah

Sarvebhya sarva sarvebhya namaste astu rudra rupebhya
Tat purshaya vidmahe mahadevaya dheemahi
Tanno rudra prachodayaat
Eeshana sarva vidyanaam eeshwara sarva bhootanam

Brahmadhipati brahmanodhipati
Brahma shivome astu sada shivoham
Namo hiranya bahave hiranya varnyaya
Hiranya roopaya hiranya pataye
Vikapataya umapataye pashupataye namo namah
Om hara hara namah parvati pataye hara hara mahadev.

Reference and Citation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingam