After civilization came the question. Who? Who sowed the first
seed? Who makes the fruits? Who has created this world? Who pushes out the Sun
everyday from the womb of the Earth? Who blows the wind? Who decides when men
should die?
It was then that man sought out the Gods. In the cradle of
civilization on the bank of dank river valley, surrounded by snow-capped
mountains, man gave form to God. God had all the answers. He was all supreme.
The next questions man faced was what does God look like? What does he sound
like? Is he clothed or naked? Where does he stay?
Man looked around himself and found the manifestation of God
in his environment. To him, God was as large as the unending mountains. He gave
birth to the Sun and swallowed it too every day. The nourishing rivers flowed
from him to the sea. He rode the cattle of the mountains and found himself at
the highest of the most treacherous of peaks.
The ancient Man must have observed his environs. Virgin
untamed mountains, yet to be touched by civilization and the demands of society
stood mightily before him. He did not have the words to express what he saw. He
just created symbols which would fuse the Gods he sought to the might of the
mountains he saw. There was no other way to pay homage to the godly sights he
saw. There was no bigger symbol to express the Gods he sought. By the flowing
river and under the crescent moon, man suddenly found himself in the lap of
Shiva.
Over the millennia, the stories would have changed, to the
point where we do not know how much of the original stories and their
interpretations still hold. But on this we must agree. That God was not in a
temple or a mosque or church. God was once Shiva – eternal and omnipresent – before
man created God in his own image. The image of Shiva is a calm
man with his eyes closed. He appears disconnected from the world. Yet we know
that there is none as connected to everything as Shiva. He accepts the world as
a part of himself and himself as a part of the world. The two are not different
in his mind. You can still feel that in the mountains today. You are a mere
tiny speck amongst the vast expanse. And your existence is what gives the vast
expanse meaning. You are not different from your environment. You are your
environment. And Shiva understands this. And so he smiles.
To those who have never been to the mountains, I urge you to
go to Tosh in Parvati Valley. In the heart of the village still not infected by
modern telecommunication. Go and watch the sky for a while. I promise you will not
be bored. You will feel a connection to the world beyond than what your little
screen could ever provide you. If amongst those mountains and valleys we cannot
find God, I don’t know where we might.
