THE UNIVERSAL FORM OF SHIVA

Shiva is understood traditionally as the higher self of Rudra, the chief of the eleven rudras. While the body of Rudra corresponds to the visible form of the galaxy, the body of Shiva extends beyond the galaxy and is truly universal.

According to tradition, Shiva represents the universal embodiment of tamas, the darkness and inertia that serves as the source of all forms of observable matter in the universe. The texts state that the universal body of Shiva is dark but covered by a fine white ash, so that it appears white—which corresponds to how Shiva is depicted traditionally. This luminous white ash makes up the shining stars and galaxies that cover the darkness of the universal vacuum.

Shiva was immune to the kala-kuta poison—a manifestation of tamas—because of his own nature. Therefore, he could swallow it without being rendered unconscious. The universal form of Shiva extends over a vast spectrum of space-time scales. His white, ash-covered torso corresponds to the visible galaxy consisting of luminous stars. His blue-black neck corresponds to the galactic field of tamas (darkness and inertia) that pervades and extends beyond the visible form of the galaxy. The neck of Shiva may be compared to a dark spherical halo that surrounds the luminous form of the galaxy. In this surrounding region of darkness, there are no luminous stars or conscious embodied beings; they have all been swallowed in the field of tamas—the field of darkness and inertia that arose as the first product of the churning process.

Just as the neck lies above the torso, the head lies above the neck. Shiva’s head corresponds to the vastness of intergalactic space that lies above and beyond the dark galactic halo. Shiva was therefore viewed as the embodiment of the visible, material universe as a whole.