Mahakatha's Meditation Mantras

Over the last few weeks, we've spoken about the

symbolism of Lord Shiva. We discussed the

legend behind the river flowing out of his hair. We discussed

the snake around his neck. We discussed his

third eye and the symbolic spiritual meaning

of the threshula. This week, we're going to go

one step higher and speak about a much

bigger aspect of Lord Shiva,

bigger than the river, the snake, the eye, the

Threshula, or any physical attribute of Lord

Shiva. Today we speak about the

goddess that is often visualized as not just a part

of him, but an entire half of him.

Today we talk about Goddess Parvati.

Namaste, dear listener. Welcome to this week's episode of

the Mahakatha Meditation Mantras podcast. I'm your host,

Preeti. And today, being perhaps the last episode before

Mahashivratri, I thought we should dedicate this

episode to the soul that Shiva loved the

most, to the soul that is known as half

of him, to the contrasting divine energy

that he embraced to become the

Ardhanarishwar, or the half female God.

And that is goddess Parvati.

The legendary love story of Lord Shiva and

Parvati is filled with astonishing

details and so many different versions.

And while I promise we will speak about their relationship in

their wedding, in their coming together sometime in the

future, today I want to get to the core of who

they are, of what they represent.

Shiva and Parvati.

Shiva and Shakti. This

combination is also known as

Purusha and Prakriti. This is

perhaps my most favorite

explanation of Shiva and Parvati,

that Shiva is Purusha and

Parvati is Prakriti. Purusha is that

masculine energy that we hold

inside us, or perhaps the energy of

pursuit, of ambition, of right

and wrong, of action, of

deep thought, of spirituality,

Purusha represents that aspect of

all of us. And while we all are heavily

focused on this aspect of our lives, on

trying to do more, trying to be more, trying

to achieve more, trying to destroy our own inner

weaknesses, trying to stay away from

negativity, trying to become more spiritually

awakened. While we are constantly

leaning in to the Purusha aspect of

ourselves, there is also a Prakriti

aspect to us. And the Prakriti

aspect will not be neglected. If

Purusha is about change and transformation and

ambition, the Prakriti aspect of us

is about love,

nurturing, nourishment,

growth, empathy,

beauty, and our love for beauty and all

these gentler things. And in our

pursuit of Shiva, in our pursuit of

purusha, we might end up neglecting

parvati or Prakriti but she

is inseparable from who we are.

Our capacity to love, our capacity to

forgive, our capacity to cultivate and

to nurture like a mother or a father and to

be selfless and to watch something grow

and care for it and protect

it is a huge part of what makes

us human. Now, it might seem like

Prakriti is the complete opposite of

purusha, that they don't share anything in common.

But it is also said that you cannot

embrace Purusha without embracing

Prakriti. You cannot embrace Prakriti without

embracing purusha. It is also said that there is no

prayer to Lord Shiva that is

fruitful without the acknowledgement of goddess

Parvati. So if you find yourself

stuck or anxious or directionless

in your path of purusha, if you find

yourself unable to focus, unable to bring

favorable results, unable to change or

transform either yourself or your life, unable to

fulfill your dreams and ambitions,

instead of struggling more and depleting yourself

more, take a step back. Lift

your gaze from the Purusha path of your

life to the Prakriti path of your

life. Instead of tormenting yourself

over trying to do more and be more and create

more and have more and experience more,

try to appreciate more.

Try to find things in your life that need

nurturing, that need caring. Try to find

things in your life that will awaken your

nurturing side, your loving and affectionate

side, your non judgmental, your

forgiving and your graceful side.

The moment you do this, you will stop feeling

inadequate. The moment you do this, you will stop

feeling frustration or hatred or resentment

or anger towards yourself. Instead,

your mind, your body, your spirit will feel this gush

of pure positive energy. You will no longer see

yourself as depleted or exhausted

or empty. You will see yourself as

an endless source of energy and emotion and

power. When you lean into your Prakriti

and you pour out love and affection and

kindness and grace and forgiveness into

people around you and into the life you've created,

you will notice that in the most surprising and

unexpected of ways, you will experience abundance

too. You will experience success too.

You will experience prosperity and

spiritual satisfaction and a complete

transformation as well. When you

balance the Purusha in you by appealing to the

Prakriti in you is when your life

truly begins to change and move

forward towards the life that you desire to

experience. So this week, as

we get ready for Mahashivaratri which is

the day when Shiva is said to have united

with Goddess Parvati, may the

Purusha and the Prakriti in you may

the powerful and the pristine in you,

the relentless and the graceful in you

unite. Speaking of Shiva and

Parvati, in this episode I bring you a

beautiful Shiva mantra to experience the

harmony of Purusha and Prakriti within

you. And that mantra is the Shadakshara

stotram. The Shadakshara stotram is

a meditation and a celebration of the six

syllables that make up the beautiful chant

of om nama shivai, the

sounds being om na ma

shi va and ya. Each

of these syllables has an origin, has a

symbolism, and has blessings associated with

it. And among them, among these

blessings is also the blessing of

Shakti or goddess Parvati. So

this week, if you don't have the Shadakshara stotram

already, then by using the coupon code mentioned in the

description of this episode, you can go ahead and buy this

mantra at a 30% discount and as a

run up to the most auspicious day of

the year, especially if you're a devotee of

Shiva, a follower of Shiva, a learner of

Shiva, use this mantra along

with the Shiva mantras that we've been talking about in the previous

weeks and try and listen to them for as

long as you feel like and surrender as

much of yourself to these mantras as you can,

such that this week ends up becoming the

cleansing week for your soul and it

unlocks everything that you have been asking for,

that you've been working towards for a really long

time. And like we discussed in this episode,

while you meditate to Shiva Mantras, don't

forget to visualize goddess Parvati.

Allow that cosmic balance to be activated

within you and for it to transform you.

With that, we come to the end of today's episode. Dear Listener,

thank you so much for joining in, not just for today's episode,

but for the entire series of episodes that we

dedicated to Lord Shiva. And if you've been with us for

even longer than that, I am eternally grateful to you

for being a part of this podcast journey. If you haven't

already, please take a moment to leave us a review.

We are always eager to hear your experience and your

feedback and your suggestion, so do share your

thoughts. Do try and feel the presence of Lord

Shiva during the auspicious time of Shivaratri,

which comes up soon, and may you stay blessed.