Narayana and Shiva-- one God, two forms

 Hari Aum.

I hope all readers are well and that your spiritual practice is going smoothly. With regard to my sadhana, I am glad to say that I am plodding on with the current purascharana. It is continuing at a modest seven malas of japa per day. 

I am also worshipping the Divine Mother daily-- I completed one year of Mother Lakshmi worship this month (on average, did 1 mala of Her mantra a day along with my Narayana mantra sadhana) and it has been lovely. My health and wellbeing are much better than they were this time last year and I am very grateful to Her for this. 

My plan is now to worship Mother Sarasvati for a few weeks or months by doing japa of Her mantra (again, around 1 mala a day). I feel inspired to connect with Her particularly since I have restarted my studies of music and dance in recent years. I will also recite the Saptasloki Durga more regularly (I want to keep the worship of the Mother mostly spontaneous though unlike the Narayana mantra recitation which is a daily discipline).

I want to say to anyone else contemplating the path of purascharana that it is very well worth it. I will admit that this practice is not without its challenges, but it undoubtedly brings support and encouragement from the Divine. And this support is often completely unexpected. There can also be spiritual warnings which should be heeded.

I have mentioned in previous posts that I sometimes get random dreams about the Divine (these often contain some help or guidance related to my life situation at the time; this started happening only after performing a regular mantra practice for some years). Recently, I had a completely out-of-the-blue dream of Lord Shiva. 

The past month has been very busy for various reasons including preparing for a trip to see my family in Kerala and to have a mini-pilgrimage. My evening mantra practice during this time has been less than ideal as a result-- done as a chore with not much devotion (the morning practice has been better luckily).

I feel the recent dream of Lord Shiva was a much-needed rap on my knuckles; it felt like a spiritual warning, being told off for being a bit sloppy with my practice. 

I will not go into all the details of the dream here but I will say that it was a darshan of Him in the form often depicted in pictures (matted hair, wearing tiger skin etc- this is a form that I never meditate upon nor do I even have pictures of this or contemplate Him in this way. If I worship Shiva, which is very occasional, this is always in the linga form. That made this dream seem even odder from my perspective). 

The themes of the dream were i) the value of time ii) death (this part was a bit unnerving to say the least as I seemed about to die in the dream but then quite unexpectedly did not!) and iii) the great importance of practicing the mantra of God. 

I have decided not to ignore this dream of Shiva and the message within it-- I will take it seriously (based on lessons learned from ignoring a warning from the Mother in a dream two years ago which I had dismissed as mere imagination; I have written another post on this. I ended up with a very unpleasant health issue during Navaratri that year as a result-- a slipped disc in my neck-- which by Her grace, I have now recovered from very well). 

As the New Year approaches therefore, I am pulling up my socks and re-dedicating myself to my spiritual practice. 

In the dream, when I saw Shiva, I greeted Him with 'Om Namah Shivaya' and 'Mrityunjayaya Namah' (meaning, Salutations to the One who is victorious over death, a well-known name of Lord Shiva). I was slightly on tenterhooks the morning after the dream wondering if it was a sign that my death was imminent (who knows, it might be, but I hope and pray it is not, as I feel I have much more to do here, including a lot more spiritual practice)! 

I did calm down after a while though and told myself that we all have to die one day and there is no point in being overly worried about it-- if it has to happen, it will happen, and one might as well make the best of the time one has left especially by doing spiritual practice and mantra japa in particular (my husband was not too happy with the dream though--he worships Shiva daily-- and half-jokingly, half-seriously periodically checked up on me that day to ensure that I was still alive and kicking!). The dream did have the desired effect of making me recite my mantra much more sincerely afterwards though. 

After the dream, I also wondered why I have recently been dreaming much more of Lord Shiva compared with Lord Narayana/Krishna (whom I think of much more in the waking state and actually worship every day). 

I therefore asked Krishna, 'Why don't You appear in my dreams more often? Why do I keep dreaming of Lord Shiva?" (Of course I am delighted to dream of Shiva too-- even if it was a bit scary!). This is possibly the third or fourth time I have dreamt of Shiva in recent years (and each dream seems to contain some poignant message relevant to my life).

It is true that I do not see Narayana/Krishna and Shiva as different at all. I see them as two equal forms of One God, one Supreme Being. I have great reverence for both forms whom I regard as equally sacred. 

However, many spiritual seekers have a personal favourite form of God, the ishta devata, whose darshan or vision they often long to see (in dream or the waking state or in some state of consciousness). And, I too have my ishta devata-- I chose Krishna/Narayana over twenty years ago and this has always felt comfortable, felt completely right for me. 

So it was quite puzzling to say the least to worship one form in the daytime and then dream of a different form at night. For a short while after the dream, I wondered if God Himself was advising me to worship Him as Shiva rather than Narayana/Krishna. 'Does God want me to switch ishta devatas?!', I wondered, 'Am I being asked to change paths?'.

The scandalous thought 'Should I change my mantra?' (to that of Shiva) flitted very briefly through my mind, a thought that was unthinkable in the past. The cardinal rule of yoga is that once one has chosen a mantra and been initiated into it and practiced it, come hell or highwater, one should never, ever change it. One must stick with one mantra until the end, until God is realised. 

One form of God, one mantra, one Guru-- the 'rule of the one' must be kept according to the yogis. This is essential for spiritual success and I have hitherto tried my best to keep this rule.

The thought then occurred to me that, despite all my spiritual interests, I do have a very sceptical side to my nature. Unfortunately I am not easily persuaded by 'signs' from the universe, whether in dreams or in the waking state. I often tend to doubt and dismiss these as mere imagination. The universe usually needs to give me a fairly big hint to get me to take it seriously I'm afraid (especially when it is a message that I really do not want to hear)!

Had I dreamt of Krishna or Narayana, therefore, I would immediately have told myself that this was hardly surprising as I often think of God in this form during the day; and of course, it is quite normal to dream at night about things that we see or think of in the daytime. I would have therefore have been more likely to feel that the dream was merely my imagination.

Dreaming of Shiva (especially this particular form that I have not seen in dream before) was therefore much more effective in getting me to listen, to sit up and pay attention. And I assume that is why this occurred.

So, the long and short of it, is that I am going to stick with my mantra and stick with my spiritual practice, and revive my sincerity while doing this. I respect all forms of God, and regard both Shiva and Narayana as one. I regard any dream of the Divine (regardless of the form) as a sign that my current spiritual practice is working and should be continued (not as a sign to change deities or mantras).

On that note, I would like to wish all of you a wonderful festive season/Christmas and New Year. Hope your sadhana is going well, and that God blesses all of us and the whole world with peace, joy and wisdom. As in previous years, let us keep up the daily prayers for peace in the world.

Om Namah Shivaya.

Om Namo Narayanaya.

Hari Aum Tat Sat.

P.S. As in previous years, the Krishna books that I have published on Amazon (in Kindle format) will be available for free download over the New Year period (from midnight PDT on Dec 30 to Jan 3 inclusive). Hope you enjoy them.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07B95YQCV/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=8d7d457a-fa06-4834-973e-c17fac521a35&store_ref=ap_rdr&ref_=ap_rdr