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Shiva and Shakti

parvati-lord-shiva

The Nectar of Self – Awareness

I honor the God & the Goddess,
The eternal parents of the universe.
The Lover, out of boundless love,
Takes the form of the Beloved.
What beauty!
Both are made of the same nectar
And share the same food.

Out of supreme love
 They swallow up each other
But separate again
For the joy of being two.

They are not completely the same
but neither are they different.
No one can tell exactly what they are.

How intense is their longing
To be with each other.
This is their greatest bliss.
Never, not even in jest,
Do they allow their unity
To be disturbed.

They are so averse to separation
That even though they have become
This entire world,
Never for a moment do they let
A difference come between them

Even though they see
All that is animate & inanimate,
Arising from within themselves,
They never recognize a third.

They sit together in the same place,
Both wearing a garment of light.
From the beginning of time
They have been together,
Revealing in their own Supreme Love.

They created a difference
To enjoy this world.
When that “difference”
Had one glimpse of their intimacy
It could not help but merge
Back into the bliss
Of their eternal union.

Without God,
There is no Goddess,
And without the Goddess
There is no God.

How sweet is their love!
The entire universe is too small
To contain them,
Yet they live happily
In the tiniest particle.

The life of one
Is the life of the other,
And not even a blade of grass
Can grow without both of them.

Only these two live In this house
Called the universe.
When either one is asleep
The other stays awake
And plays the part of both.

Should both of them awake,
The whole universe
Would vanish without a trace.

They become two
For the sake of divine play,
But in every moment
They seek to become one again.

Both of them see together,
Both of them are seen together.
They are happy only when together.

Shiva has become all forms:
Both dark & light,
Both male & female.
By the union of these two halves
The whole universe comes to be.

Two lutes make one note.

Two roses make one fragrance.

Two lamps make one light.

Two lips – one word.

Two eyes – one sight.

Shiva & Shakti – one universe.

Though appearing separate
They are forever joined,
always eating from the same plate.

How can we distinguish these two from each other?
He appears because of Her,

And She exists because of Him.

We cannot tell sugar
From its sweetness,
Not Camphor
From its fragrance.

To capture light,
We take hold of fire
To capture the Supreme Shiva,
We must take hold of Shakti

Light illumines the Sun,
But the Sun itself creates the light.
The glorious Sun and its light
Are one and the same.

An object has a reflection:
when looking we see two images, yet there is only one thing.
Likewise, this world is a reflection
of the Supreme Lord.
We may see two, Yet only One exists.

He is so mysterious and subtle,
That while apparent,
HE cannot be seen.
It is by Her grace alone
That He comes into being.

She awakens Her Lord,
and serves him a great feast the size of the universe.
with great delight
He swallows up every dish
and also the one who serves Him

While He is sleeping,
She gives birth to all that exists.
When She is sleeping
He has no form at all.

Look
He is hidden,
and cannot be found without Her
For they are mirrors,
each revealing the other.

Embracing Her,
Shiva enjoys His own bliss.
though all the joy of the world belongs to Him,
Ther is no joy without Her

She is His very form,
But Her radiance comes from Him,
Blending into one,
They enjoy the nectar of their own Union.

Shiva and Shakti are one!

Shiva and Shakti cannot be separated.
they are like musk and its fragrance,
like fire and its heat.

Embracing each other, They merge into One,
As darkness merges with the light
at the breaking of dawn.

So I enjoy the worship of Shiva and Shakti,
though I am never separate from them.

And this is how I honour Shiva and Shakti

By removing all separation and becoming One with them

lingam

~  By Jnaneshwar