Shivoham

My God of choice is Shiva. It was love at first sight. Since he's the God of destruction, folks tend to give him wide berth, thinking that association with him may bring with it some bad juju. But the wrathful deity shtick is only one aspect of Shiva. I prefer to think of him as the God of tough love. All your nasty habits that are keeping you from awakening to your true nature? That's what Shiva concerns himself with. If you ask him to (and sometimes even if you don't) he'll shatter your egoic delusions so that you may perceive the pervading unity of reality.

But that's not all. This is my favorite part: You are Shiva. Actually, so am I. Shiva is your true nature. Shiva is Consciousness. Shiva is the Jungian 'undifferentiated being'. Shiva is the Hindu equivalent of Jesus. Not in the sense of being your savior, but the outer symbol of who and what you really are: undivided being, pure consciousness, and all those annoying buzz words that grasp for the ungraspable.

But I don't want to get caught up in definitions. I'll just say that Shiva is the symbol of the higher Self and leave it at that. He has many, many names and faces, but his presence is the unity that we find when we peek behind the thin veil of appearances.

Above: Shivoham, holy books on paper, 9" x 6", 2010.