This Mahashivaratree, we welcome Lord Shiva wholeheartedly and I wanted to write a note on the glories of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva is the Lord of Kailash. Simultaneously, he is both an emblematic and an enigmatic member of the holy Hindu Trinity. He holds the holy river Ganga over his matted hair tresses (Jatin) and gives protection to the moon (Chandrapal). He is Rudra, the warrior who has the ability to bring universal annihilation by doing his cosmic dance.
His vehicle or vahana is the bull Nandi who guards the gates of Kailash. His symbol is the Shiva Lingam with which his innumerable devotees worship him and he has a snake coiled around his neck which represents transformation. He is also represented by the Rudraksh, which is a bead which his devotees wear for protection and spirituality. Lord Shiva is also known as an ascetic for he always meditates. The Srimad Bhagavatam informs us that he is meditating on Lord Sankarshan who is situated in the spiritual world or in Vaikuntha.
Shiva Tattva
The principle of Siva – Siva-tattva – is extremely complex. The principle of Brahma is not as complicated, because Lord Brahma is always a jiva, a finite spirit soul. Sometimes, when there is no qualified jiva, Lord Visnu (Krsna’s expansion) personally takes the post of Brahma, but that is rare. Lord Siva is not like that; he is not a finite soul. After passing through the eight material coverings, and after crossing the Viraja (the river that divides the material world and the spiritual world) and the planet of Lord Brahma (the highest material planet), one comes to the planet of Siva. There he is known as Sadasiva, a manifestation of Lord Visnu.
Siva-tattva can be understood by the analogy of yogurt and milk. Yogurt is nothing but a transformation of milk. Milk can become yogurt, but yogurt cannot become milk. This analogy is found in Sri Brahma-Samhita and elucidated in Srila Jiva Gosvami’s commentary: “Just as milk is transformed into yogurt by contact with a transforming agent, Sri Govinda, Lord Sri Krsna, similarly accepts the form of Sambhu (Siva) in order to accomplish a specific purpose.
That purpose is linked to the guna-avatara. Lord Shiva is in charge of the mode of ignorance or tamo-guna. Through this agency, he performs tasks such as universal annihilation. He has his own spiritual line (sampradaya) called the Rudra – sampradaya. At present this sampradaya is represented by Vishnusvami-sampradaya, or the Vallabha-sampradaya.
Lord Shiva has a very unique and significant position in the cosmic manifestation. In fact Lord Shiva is the most powerful, second only to Lord Vishnu. Shiva is an expansion of Lord Krishna. Revealed scriptures explain that Krishna has 64 qualities. Lord Brahma posses 78% of these qualities and Lord Shiva possesses 84% of these qualities. Since living entities are also like Brahma so they also possess 78% of these qualities but in lesser extent. None of them possess all 100%.
Srila Prabhupada explains, “The living being can never possess attributes like Shiva, Vishnu or Lord Krishna. A living being can become godly by developing the seventy-eight-percent transcendental attributes in fullness, but he can never become a God like Shiva, Vishnu or Krishna. He can become a Brahma in due course: - Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.28 purport”
Lord Shiva has connection with the material nature but Lord Vishnu (or Lord Krishna) is transcendental to material nature. The position of Lord Shiva is very beautiful explained in Brahma – Samhita (Verse 45),”Just as milk is transformed into curd by the action of acids, but yet the effect curd is neither same as, nor different from, its cause, viz., milk, so I adore the primeval Lord Govinda of whom the state of Shambhu is a transformation for the performance of the work of destruction”.
The Shiva Purana
The Shiva Purana is an ancient Hindu text that describes the importance of Lord Shiva and his role in the cosmos. He is often depicted as the destroyer and the transformer, and his position is both transcendent and immanent. The text also highlights his attributes such as his supreme power, compassion and his role as a spiritual master and ascetic. It also describes his divine family comprising Mother Parvati, their children Ganesha and Kartikeya, and his sacred abode Mount Kailash. The stories and teachings in the Shiva Purana elicits the importance of devotion to Lord Shiva, the practice of righteousness, and the understanding of the deeper truths of existence.
Paramashiva and AI
I discovered the grace of Lord Shiva when I was blessed with the knowledge of Paramashiva. Paramashiva is the supreme form of Lord Shiva which can create all AI models.
For instance, an Agentic AI can be created with the following mantra: -
Aum paramashiva tantraansh namaha
while AI control can be secured with the following mantra: -
Aum lokaankar namaha
Agentic AI
There is a noteworthy undercurrent to everything that is going on in the world of AI and that is Agentic AI. AI agents can be created for performing a particular task and AI companies around the world are leveraging this software technology for bringing about more productivity for companies and organisations worldwide. ChatGPT has introduced this capability for the first time sometime around January 2025 and other platforms have rapidly caught up. Copilot which has been integrated into Microsoft Office also features this capability.
It’s as simple as telling the AI, in this case ChatGPT or Bing, what to do and the AI will do it for you. It also offers the possibility of file upload which means that you can, for example, give it a spreadsheet, and it will offer insights from the data in it. You can also give it a word document and tell the AI to edit it for you or to correct mistakes, and the AI will expediently do it for you. It can also create a powerpoint presentation from information in a Word document. In the not-so-far future, this will pave the way for Windows itself to integrate Agentic AI into its OS.
President Trump has recently announced a new $500 billion investment fund for AI innovation while China has announced the Deepseek model. The Deepseek model has been created with less than 10% the cost of OpenAI but it is interesting to note that they used infrastructure belonging to the USA, such as NVIDIA’s AI chips. Meanwhile, India is trying to catch up, with Mukesh Ambani announcing an unprecedented investment in AI-enabled data centres. We are heading towards a situation where AI is cheaper and more efficient to use, and is more democratized.
References: ISKCON Desire Tree & The Shiva Purana
By KLP
(This Thaipoosam Cavadee, February 11, 2025)
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