ardhaanaariishvara

[Ravi]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 07:11:02 -0800 (PST)
From: Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <balasr at yahoo.com>
To: Ravi <msr at comco.com>
Cc: Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
Subject: Re: ardhaanaariishvara

--- Ravi <msr at comco.com> wrote:
> Is this a  far fetched and ridiculous idea?
>
> ---------
> I was thinking about ardhanaariishvara stotram,
> suddenly a
> thought flashed into my mind. Every man carries a
> symbol of
> ardhanaariishvara in him, as a reminder of shiva
> sharing one of
> half of his body with ambaaL. Chromosomes is this
> symbol. Man has
> an X and Y chromosome, and woman has two Xs.  And
> this is what
> determines the sex of a person. There is an element
> (rather half)
> of woman in inside each man.

It's not ridiculous. Many things can be interpreted at
different levels. The one you are suggesting is at the
physical level. However, the intepretation at the
non-physical level is the supreme vedantic truth that
brahman is both the nimitta and upadAna kAraNa, i.e.,
the efficient and material cause of the universe. As
you know, the nyAya-vaisheshika considers Ishvara as
only the efficient cause. This is refuted in the
bhAshhyas many times.

The ardhanArishvara form is described in the
mahAnArAyaNa upanishhad

R^itam satyaM paraM brahma purushhaM
kR^ishhNapi.ngalaM|
UrdhvaretaM virUpAxaM vishvarUpAya vai namo nama.h ||

Sureshvara says in his bR^ihad-vArttika that Ishvara
has the power of svAtantrya (independence) and can
thus create the universe as he wishes. sha.nkara also
says that Ishvara creates the universe by mere will,
just like yogis (e.g, vishvAmitra) were able to create
universes. The mAnasollAsa also emphasizes this fact
(ichchhAmAtram).

This creative power of Ishvara, represented as shakti,
is not really apart from Ishvara. This is effectively
conveyed by the ardhanAri form. The ardhanAri form
uses a physical symbolism to convey the supreme truth.
That is exactly what the above mantra also conveys. As
you know, virUpAxa and Urdhvaretas are very common
names for shiva. kR^ishhNa-pi.ngalam suggests the
unity of shakti and shiva (represented by kR^ishhNa
and pi.ngala respectively). There are other
interesting things about this mantra, which I'll try
to mail you later.

The whole universe created by Ishvara is not really
apart from him, hence he is called vishvarUpa. Due to
avidyA, there is superimposition of the unreal (namely
the name and form in the universe) on the real (namely
Ishvara). The next mantra in the upanishhad emphasizes
this fact by saying

sarvo vai rudrastasmai rudrAya namo astu|

sarvo vai rudra.h is the same as sarvam khalvidam
brahma, namely rudra is the source of the universe.

kAlidAsa's famous and beautiful verse vAgarthAviva
sa.npR^iktau also conveys the same message.

Rama
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>From  Sat Feb 26 14:44:40 2000
Message-Id: <SAT.26.FEB.2000.144440.0600.>
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 14:44:40 -0600
Reply-To: miinalochanii at yahoo.com
To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
From: Ravi <miinalochanii at YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: ardhanArI Form
Comments: To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at braincells.com>
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Vivek Anand Ganesan wrote:
>
> Hello all :
>
>     I have been much intrigued by the ardhanArI form.  I am
> only aware of a temple with this mUrthi in Tamil Nadu.
>

shiva linga what you see in most temples is an ardhanaari form. The
piiTha represents parashaktii. It is rare  to see shiva without shakti.
Lord is normally worshipped in the form of linga. While commenting on
one of the naama-s in lalita sahasranaama, bhaaskararaaya mentions this.

I am sure puraaNa-s on shiva will mention this. I verified this in
Dancing with Siva (by shivaaya subramuniya swami).

The forms that probably depicts Him alone are  daxiNaamurti and
naTaraja.


--
Ravi

AUM shivashaktyaikaruupiNyai namaH

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