I’ve been contemplating writing this since I finished The Wisdom Codes by Gregg Braden last week, and today, when it’s Mahashivratri (literally translates to the great night of Shiva and commemorates the wedding of Shiva and Parvati), is the right day to finally sit down and let my thoughts find expression here.
When brought up in a Hindu family, chanting Om Namah Shivaya or being asked to chant the same when stuck in a fearful or anxious situation is as natural as being asked to eat when hungry. I did that as a kid, and, naturally, the divine chant integrated into my life but minus its divine meaning. So, the mantra found itself zillion times on my lips but never in my heart, unfortunately. Over time, it also lost its significance. However, the mantra from our ancient texts made a wild card entry recently when I read its deeper meaning in Gregg Braden’s The Wisdom Codes: Ancient Words to Rewire Our Brains and Heal Our Hearts.
Words are powerful and magical tools that govern our lives — basing his book on this premise, Gregg Braden lists wisdom codes, namely prayers, chants, hymns, and mantras, in which our ancestors found refuge during troubled times. Today, though we have come a long way in terms of our lifestyles, we still suffer from essentially the same grief; we experience loss, hurt, doubt, anger, and whatnot. We are constantly struggling and seeking validation. Social media is one such medium where our appetite for validation finds expression — one post and boy, we’re craving for likes and comments. When we seek that outside, finding ourselves at the mercy of what others think is something inevitable. And since our worth is dependent on something that lies outside us, it becomes fragile. Resultantly, episodes of impostor syndrome become frequent. The very same society that taught us to speak strips us of our ability to express ourselves. The irony of life! It is in such times, opines Gregg Braden, that if we apply the same formula that our forefathers used when tussling with a difficult situation, we can restore our emotional state and heal ourselves.
In one of the sections that talk about seeking inner strength when experiencing self-doubt, the book talks about Om Namah Shivaya — the Hindu mantra taken from Yajurveda — one of the four Vedic texts. Before delving into this divine mantra, let me tell you that you are in for a beautiful discovery if you are someone who believes in cosmic powers; at least, that’s how it panned out for me.
Shiva (the destroyer) is one of the three primal forces, two of which are Brahma (the creator) and Vishnu (the preserver). The mere mention of the word Shiva evokes death and destruction; however, digging a little deeper, we come to realize that destruction is only half the complete truth; the process that begins with destruction ends with a new beginning. Because for something to take a new form or shape, it has to face the annihilation of all it was made up of in the past. So, Shiva symbolizes the transformation or metamorphosis — the death of an old form that no longer serves us to give birth to a new form. This is how Shiva is about change — a change for the better. Thus, beyond death lies a new life. Beyond destruction lies transformation. This is such a powerful revelation that merely reading about it or discovering this truth fills you with strength and hope, and life.
Breaking down the mantra into its individual elements, Gregg further gives us an insight into the meaning each element holds. It’s under the telescopic lens that the mantra finds its way to our hearts and souls, for when we see the naked truth, an instant connection is built, and we find the cosmos that lies within and hence the power that lies within.
Made up of three simple yet profound words, described in the following lines, the mantra possesses immense energy that mobilizes an upward shift in our being from the state of insufficiency to abundance.
Om: It is the vibration that was there before the universe came into being. This is the sound of the pure existence of everything, and nothing. Now, chant Om for as long as you can and feel this existence through yourself.
Namah: Namaste is what we Indians say while greeting others. This act of doing namaskaram while pressing our hands together, fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close to our chests, and bowing slightly exemplifies humbleness, which is the quality that this gesture intends to inculcate in us. In this mantra, by uttering namah, we are also bowing in adoration and welcoming the transformation that is about to happen. It’s about honouring the change.
Shivaya: Shiva here represents the “inner self” that we are invoking. It is believed that each of us possesses Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer/preserver). By chanting Om Namah Shivay, we call our inner Shiva or inner self, which has the power to bring about transformation in us.
In this way, by chanting this mantra, we can use the power of Shiva when a feeling of inadequacy prevails over us, when we doubt our decisions, and when we feel that we are not enough. So, a journey inward instead of outward unites us with our strength or the God that lies within us. This realization frees us of everything that is made up of doubt and fear, and love and hope begin flowing in the veins of our cosmic being.
Another interesting anecdote that Gregg Braden tells is that of the father of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer. An avid reader of the Hindu classic Mahabharata, Robert Oppenheimer, while observing the detonation of the first atomic bomb in a test on July 16, 1945, famously quoted Lord Shiva from the text, “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
This picture above is the sculpture of the Nataraja, the dancing form of Shiva, in a courtyard at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which is on the France-Switzerland border. Indian government presented this to CERN, which isn’t without reason, of course. The laboratory dedicated to finding the deep mysteries of human existence conducts advanced experiments in physics that involve annihilating subatomic particles through high-speed collisions. The purpose behind this destruction in the laboratory is to find something new, i.e., a new understanding of creation, and hence, the dancing Shiva on the premises of CERN. Wow!
With this renewed understanding of Om Namah Shivay, I look forward to navigating my life experiences. Most importantly, I am writing this on the day of Shiva, i.e., Mahashivratri; this is, in itself, a spiritual experience. Also, I happened to come across this havan kund (where offerings are made into a sacred fire) while out with my friends exploring a temple in the forests of Uttarakhand (Thano Forest, Rishikesh, to be precise); I was instantly awestruck by this Trishula (a trident, also a divine symbol in Hinduism) and took its picture, which I usually don’t when at such places. Now, I think there was a reason behind that impulse; the encounter set the stage for this spiritual reading experience (trust me, the book had been on my shelf for a long time, but I had never thought of picking it up and reading until this happened), and Trishula picture was destined to be a perfect ending to my blog post when words fall short. :p
Happy Mahashivratri!
