No, John Jesus would kill gays with his miraculous
siddhi powers R doesn't have any personal issues
with closet homosexuality. Nope, not a bit. He
worships Shiva lingams because...uh...because
of the name 'Shiva,' that's all. :-)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, John [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
To All:
Given the apparent interest in sexuality in this forum and the
national political scene, here is an excerpt of a post from another
group as shown below:
dear friends
many people asked the reason for worshipping the shivalinga with yoni
and why devotees do not worship the image of lord shiva himself.
here below is the narration of the same from the holy shivapurana,
kotirudra samhita, chapter 12:
-quote---
sages ask suta to narrat the story behind the worship of phallic form
of shiva to which sage suta says that once upon a time in the forest
of daruka, sages were all devotees of lord shiva and worshipping him
daily. to test their devotion, lord shiva comes in the form of a
naked person (avadhoota) with ashes smeared all over is body,
standing there and holding his penis. the wives of the sages were
extremely frightened at this sight while other women excited,
surprised and approached lord shiva. some embraced him, others held
his hands and the women were engrossed in struggling with one
another. meanwhile the great sages came there and seeing lord shiva
engaged in perverse activities, they were pained and infuriated.
deluded by siva maya and plunged in grief, the sages asked the naked
person who he is but shiva does not reply. then the sages curse
shiva that his penis fall on the ground since he is acting
pervertedly in violation of the vedic path.
due to the curse of the sages, the penis of that avadhoota fell down
and burnt everything and wherever it went, it began to burn
everything there. the penis went all over the earth, patala and
heaven and never remained steady anywhere and kept on going places.
unable to comprehend shiva maya, the sages and gods approached lord
brahma to find a solution to stop the penis from burning everything
everywhere. then lord brahma says that if a guest comes to the
ashram of sages, he must be treated with respect even if he is
avadhoota. since this avadhoota instead of getting respect got
cursed, the penis would not become stationary which bodes bad for all
the three worlds. to make the penis stationary and steady, lord
brahma advises the gods and sages to propitiate goddess parvati and
pray her to assume the form of vagina so that it holds the penis.
lord brahma also states that a pot shall be placed over it and water
from holy centres shall be poured into the pot along with the sprouts
of durva and barley invoked with vedic mantras. the penis held in
the vagina thus shall be drenched in water with sata rudriya
mantras. parvati in the form of vaginal passage and an auspicious
arrow shall form as the pedestal wherein the phallus shall be
installed with vedic mantras. the shivalinga then shall be
propitiated with the offerings of sandal paste, fragrant flowers,
incense and other things as well as by food offerings and other forms
of worship. with prostrations, holy hymns, bhajans and songs he
shall be propitiated further with svastyayana mantras etc.
thus pleased, lord shiva tells the gods and sages that if the penis
is supported in the vaginal passage, it will immediately become quiet
and no woman other than parvati can hold his penis. then goddess
parvati assumes the vagina form and holds the phallus and is
worshipped by brahma, Vishnu, other gods and sages and the three
worlds stayed in peace and happiness.
---unquote---
narrating the above story, it is preached that when devotees worship
an image or form of the god, even if he is avadhuta or naked,
devotees shall focus on their meditation with holy vision which is
why our elders advise that whenever we see the image of a diety, we
shall look at their feet and prostrate at the feet to seek blessings.
members are aware that naga sadhus who live like avadhootas live
naked with ash smeared all over the body and they are given highest
respect. in all kumbha melas, naga sadhus are the first people to
take bath. we also see digambar jain gurus live all along as
avadhootas and these avadhootas travel barefoot and devotees treat
these avadhootas as god.
some other puranic experts also narrate that this story highlights
the significance of lord shiva and parvati representing the creation
of this universe. we also find at the beginning of raghuvamsam,
kalidasa eulogizing lord shiva and parvati and their cosmic union as
the parents of this universe.
with best wishes and blessings
pandit arjun
www.rudraksharemedy.com
