Four Aspects of Shiva

It is a common place. We have seen it in temples, on calendars, on matchbox labels: the blue body smeared with ash, the third eye, the tiger-skin. Locked in the lotus posture he mediates in the mist and snow of Kailash; the moon rests on his hair and the Ganga spills from his tangled locks. Shiva is the ascetic whose meditation sustains the universe. He reposes at the centre and contemplates the world, concentrating its energies into himself. Or perhaps the movement is centrifugal: energy radiates from him and he does not so much consider the world as create it, all its immensity and richness being but thoughts in his mind.
As a yogi, Shiva is the master of his senses. His self-discipline grants him control over the world.…