Purity - The Basis of Spiritual Practice
Meditation on Shiva
Shiva is seated high above all the realms of the entities, humans and deities. He is seated so high above and seated in silence. Various manifest realms are clearly dynamic portions of Adi Shakti and those that we occupy and reside in are but extensions of that Shakti in the form of Prakriti. If Shiva Upasana (worship) precedes any form of the Upasana of any deity, then one is bound to make one's practice very effective. This approach establishes the base of much-needed silence in the being of Sadhaka. It is upon this silence the edifice of one's Upasana can be built. This ensures the longevity of Sadhana (Spiritual practice) and also any reliable transformation can be affected.
Shiva is Shuddha and Nirmala. That is a completely pure being. Nirguna and achala i.e one who transcends the modes of nature’s ( Prakriti’s) action and is seated immobile in Tapas. He is the illumination of Jnana I.e he is the Prakasha, the very light that makes the world of objects cognizable. Without this light, even Sun cannot shine. It is therefore in all of traditional Sadhana, whichever form it may be I.e Tantra, Yoga, Veda Upasana and even in Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, the element of purification precedes every other action. One needs to learn to meditate on Shiva to achieve this Nirmala tattva.
The lakhs of the count of Japa in Mantra Upasana first work at this level of cleansing the impurities. Shiva abhishekam is meant for cleansing the karmic impurities, as if one is washing away all that needs to be unburdened. It is however a constant process. We brush our teeth and take baths daily, we never say we have achieved it once and for all. We have to do this cleansing regularly so that whatever Upasana we are doing, its Shakti can shine forth more brilliantly. That is why Sadhana is a life-long commitment and in that long journey, one gathers many experiences which ripen into wisdom. Shiva never breaks His Tapasya. Hanuman never gives a break for His devotion, who again is one of the Rudra. This capacity for a long haul of Sadhana when developed, one can consider that we have begun to make some real progress. This is the true shift that needs to occur. When this shift occurs, Sadhana becomes an ever-enjoyable process. Otherwise, it can become just a repeated habitual behaviour, one more conditioning on endless conditionings that we already are burdened with.
These lines of Sri Aurobindo clearly resonate the need for Shiva tattva as the basis for Sadhana -
" The Solitude of the Self in the Divine has no doubt to be active as well as passive and static; but none who has not arrived at the silence and motionless solitude of the eternal self can have the free and integral activity of the higher Divine Nature. For the action is based on the silence and by the silence it is Free."