Imagination and Shiva-Linga
Devdutt Pattanaik in the ‘7 Secrets of Shiva’ tells us that imagination is what makes us human, and that it is the fountainhead of Shiva-linga, “Only the human mind, blessed with imagination, can challenge the laws of nature, withdraw from it and even break free from it. This is moksha, or liberation.”
It struck me as strange then that Patanjali, in ‘The Yoga Sutras’, tells us that imagination is one of the five inner obstacles (Vritti’s) which form the patterns and blockages of our cycle of thoughts that need to be mastered.
In Sutra 2 and 3 Patanjali writes, Yogash Chitta Vritti Nirodha, through the yoga practice of working with the body, breath and mind we end the mental cycle of repetitive thoughts and attachments (ie, the 5 Obstacles / Vrittis). It is only when these circular patterns of thought cease that we transcend our vrittis, Tada Dvastuh Svarupe Avasthanam, so we can then be seen and see the True Self for self-realisation, standing in our True Nature.
How can it be that imagination needs to be mastered and transcended, and be a blessing and the fountainhead of Shiva-linga?
And then it struck me that this is one of those perennial paradoxes we keep coming up against on the spiritual path. Yogi Ramacharaka, in ‘Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism’, says “All truths are partial and so all truth statements must be paradoxical; the relative and the absolute, the lower and the higher mind, the finite and the infinite.”
This reminded me of something else Devdutt Pattanaik had written, “Wisdom lies in breaking free from all differences, divisions and limitations so that infinity may be realised.” This then is the difference between experiencing imagination that is based on memory and the lower mind, and imagination as pure consciousness.
This is not just abstract, but has real life implications.
As humans we can imagine a world in which the rules of nature are subverted, where survival and procreation are no longer our default mode. In other words, a world beyond nature and nurture, a world beyond gender fixed and gender fluid norms. All of this is contained within the Shiva-linga.
It is unfortunate then that our relative and finite form of imagination (the third of our five inner obstacles – vrittis – to be mastered and transcended, called Vikalpa) which came up with the terms masculine and feminine (human constructs for abstract principles) have come to be so associated with male / female biological conditions.
This has resulted in lower mind prejudices, from the fundamentalist impulse, stopping people from seeing the beauty of this multifaceted manifestation. It is imperative we remind ourselves (and others) that the yogic path tells us of the greater Truth.
Bringing it all together
Humans have the potential for finite or infinite, limited and unlimited experiences of consciousness. We can be shaped or self-create. This is the message of the Shiva-linga. It is the yogic journey. The journey to sat-chitta-ananda; tranquillity, when the mind stands in its true nature, purged of all prejudice.
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