H I S T O R Y   A N D   T R A D I T I O N   I N   S H A I V I S M

Motto:
"The game of the universe's birth and death is an act of the Supreme Being's will, which is above substance (pradhana) or soul (purusha), above the manifested (vyakta), above the un-manifested (avyakta), and beyond time (kala).

Time for the Supreme being has no beginning and no end. Time and the absorption of the universe is never ending.

In the moment of absorption there is no day, no night, no space, no earth, no obscurity, no darkness, no light, nothing beyond the Supreme Being Itself, nothing beyond the perceptions of the senses and thought." ( Vishnu Purana, I, 18-23)

Shaivism, tradition of the old dravidiens, has remained a folk tradition along the centuries. Shaivism goes through eras, and temporal cycles.

The metaphysical, cosmological and ritualistic conceptions it presents have been kept by wandering hermits, named with great disrespect yati (wanderers), vratya (people outside any caste) or ajivika (beggars) by the invading Arians.

Shaivism is not a unique, hierarchic system. It involves several traditions, great and small. In its largest sense, shaivism is life itself.

According to the millenary Purana tradition, the destruction of humankind can occur only when its reason for being is gone, when the people have become perverted through the mingling of races and when the ancient spiritual traditions can no longer find a recipient to be received and transmitted further.

To the degree to which certain people will know how to reverse the tendencies of the modern world, rediscovering the ways of life and thought that are in accordance with their true nature, the apparently inevitable term can be delayed or at least several people can escape the cataclysm and take an active part in the formation of the new human race and the new golden age that is supposed to come after the next planetary cataclysm, as shaivism writings indicate.

Therefore, it is useful for any person to try and "isolate" himself or herself from the base temptations of this world and to find the values and virtues in which esoteric teaching has preserved the genuine rules and principles of the universe.

After these writings (agama), our survival as a species depends only on the rediscovery of the moral religious and social conceptions of Shaivism, bathed in the light of truth.

The shaivism teachings are the seeds of the golden era of the new human race. At the same time, a whole series of spiritual lineages will come to life after a long time of slumber.

Mahayana Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism have to reincorporate various philosophical, ritualistic and even erotic aspects of Shaivism, and become once again, to a certain degree, part of the ancestral tradition.

During the first centuries of the Christian era, the mystical and liberating Christianity of the early Gnostics gradually transformed into a dogmatic, so-called puritan religion, which gradually went astray from Jesus’ teachings. Likewise, in India, dogmatic Vishnuism gradually took the place of authentic Shaivism.

The recent appearance of numerous texts of the Gnosis, which are very close in sense and meaning to the Shaivit conceptions and to the Gospels the Church declared apocryphal constitutes, a fortunate prediction for the future.

What actually happened on a deeper level, was simply the replacement of the so-called religions of acceptance with the so-called religions of denial, in this case denial and acceptance refer to the human vision on the universe and on life.

Unlike the rest of the spiritual lineages, Tantrism - in which Shaivism is a peak - and to a certain extent Taoism, were paths that always asserted: "Everything (the universe) is Divine Consciousness".

Our present age has certain indications according to which we have reasons to believe that there will be a return to the Shaivit and Dyonisical values. This fact may announce a spiritual "escape" from the brutal end of Kali Yuga.

One of the most important phenomena of our age is the reunion of scientific research and cosmological theory, an effort to understand the nature of the world in which there is a continuity between the physical, metaphysical and spiritual levels, opposing the dogmatism of the religions inspired by Arihat.

The end of Kali Yuga is a time that is particularly suited to seeking the genuine science.

"Certain people will attain wisdom in a short time, because the merits obtained in one year of Treta Yuga can be obtained in one day of Kali Yuga" ( Shiva Purana, 5.1., 40-40).

"At the end of Kali Yuga, the god Shiva will manifest Himself in order to re-establish the just path using a secret and concealed form." ( Linga Purana 1.40.12)

The gate leading to the path of wisdom is opening. Will people have the right discernment and the courage to become involved and to stop or at least slow down the countdown to destruction?