Siva Mahadeva - The Great God

Siva Mahadeva has been worshipped for thousands of years as the Great God of India. His cult extended from the homeland of the Sakas in Central Asia to Kanyé Kumari or Cape Comorin on the sea-shore, There are numerous myths and legends associated with him of which the meaning has been explained in the present work by Dr. V. S. Agrawala. He is the Lord of Yogins and the foremost Teacher of Yoga. He expounds all the mystic doctrines and the occult religious cults of Tentras, Agamas and Samhitas. His great exploits are the vanquishing of the Andhakasura or the Demon of Darkness and Tripurasura, the Demon of the Three Cities of Gold, Silver and Copper. He is also the controller of the Ten-headed King of Lank&é named Ravana who cast a challenge to all gods and men.

The approach of the author in this book is neither historical nor anthropological, nor archaeological: by choice he has probed into the inner meaning of Siva Mahadeva, identified in the Vedas as the immortal God, Who has entered the mortal beings, Who is the same as Agni or the mysterious Vital Fire manifest in matter or the five gross material elements, Who as Arch-Yogin consumed the God of Love, Kamadeva, and re-created him in the subconscious world of the human mind and the conscious spheres of the human body or the central nervous system. The author has given in the present work an insight into the mysteries of Saiva philosophy as limited not to cosmic lucubration but Yoga and spiritual Sadhana for the control of the Pranic energy. It is this aspect of the symbolism of Siva which received the greatest emphasis from the Vedic times and in the Puranas and Saiva Agemas.

A discussion of the symbolism of the myths is reinforced by 32 half-tone plates and several line-illustrations in the text from Indian sculpture ranging over a period of four thousand years. A book of this nature on the mystery of God Siva has been written for the first time by a scholar well-versed in the Vedic and Puranic traditions of India.

It is verily a contribution to the understanding of the world reigion.

**Contents and Sample Pages**