"The family was at the dining table. Mummy, and the twins Arvind and Padma, were happy that it was a Sunday morning, when daddy devoted a large amount of time for the family. When everybody was seated, mummy served the breakfast--toasted bread with a side dish of channa masala and bread slices that sandwiched butter-and-jam, cheese, and a paste of ground cucumber, tomato and onion. Mummy took a seat near Arvind. Padma sat near her daddy.

"We are going the English way!" said daddy, looking at the pile of toasted bread and sandwiches neatly stacked on the table. "Whose idea?"

"Mummy's," said Arvind.

"A change from the routine of our usual stuff," said mummy."Padma prepared the vegetable sandwiches. Arvind prepared the butter-and-jam variety."

"Makes me hungry," said daddy, and started with bread-channa. The others followed suit.

"Dad, you said last evening that Shiva is unique among the Hindu Trinity," said Arvind. "Why is that so?"

"Shiva is unique because he is the destroyer and regenerator," said daddy, as he loaded a picture of Shiva on the laptop.

"But creation is Brahma's work," said Arvind.

"Regeneration is not just creation. To regenerate is to cause a spiritual rebirth, completely reformed and improved, either in the same form, or in a different form."

"I don't understand, dad".

"This world of ours, in fact all the creation, hangs on a delicate balance between two opposing forces of good and evil. When this balance is upset, the universe cannot function in the proper order. Shiva saves the souls from pain and suffering in a dysfunctional universe, and dissolves the universe for the next cycle of creation, so the souls that are not liberated can have another chance of living."

"But that is Vishnu's job, daddy," said Padma. "Vishnu takes an avatar and destroys the evil forces when adharma becomes too much to bear."

"Vishnu takes an avatar at the end of each yuga of the cosmic time cycle. He destroys evil forces, sure, but doesn't dissolve the universe. That is Shiva's job. The time we are talking about here is the end of all the yugas, kalpas and manvantaras--the time called mahapralaya,or great deluge, when the time is up for the entire universe. That is the end of the life of a Brahma."

The children looked startled. "Even Brahma dies, daddy?" said Padma.

"And Shiva causes this mahapralaya, dad?" said Arvind.

"Every Brahma has a hundred Brahma years of life. That will be over 309 trillion solar years. The life of Brahma is the life of the universe he has created. When the universe is dissolved, Brahma dies, and later, a new cycle of creation will be started by a new Brahma. Our present Brahma is 51 years old, so we have just crossed the middle point of the life of our universe."

"Daddy!" exclaimed the children. "If Brahma dies, what happens to Vishnu?"

"Vishnu goes back to his yoga nidra on the sesha sayanam, the bed of the snake called Adi Seshan. Understand children, Brahma, Vishnu and even Shiva, at the end of their lives, go back into the One God Brahman, who is infinite space."

"What does Brahman do when his forms are withdrawn?" asked Padma.

"Maybe Brahman needs rest and sleeps," said Arvinid.

"Right, Arvind" said daddy. "Brahman, the endless space, lies inert, or sleeping, keeping all his energy, forms and life to within himself, after a mahapralaya. But Brahman is never dead. He has no beginning, no end. He is eternal and infinite. When he wills to create a new universe, new forms and life, and a new cycle of time, again, he manifests the Trinity out of Him."

"Mind-boggling!" said the children. Daddy shrugged. "Such stupendous truths of our timeless religion, Sanatana Dharma, revealed to our ancient rishis, and passed down to us, are hard to understand, even for us adults."

"Tell us more about the cycles of time, dad," said Arvind.

"We shall discuss time next Sunday. Now, about the forms of Shiva."

"Shiva has forms?" said Arvind, a little puzzled. "Other than what is shown in this picture?"

"Think about the name of your friends Natarajan and Ramalingam," quipped Padma, "and you will know."

Mummy and daddy laughed. "This girl has a sense of humour," said mummy.

Arvind knuckled himself on the head and said, "Oops, I forgot. Shiva has three forms."

"Yes. We worship Shiva in three different forms. Brahma and Vishnu do not have such forms. We worship Shiva as Yogesvara, the Mahayogi doing tapas, as the auspicious Shiva Lingam, and as Nataraja, the great cosmic dancer. Shiva performs a cosmic dance at the time of mahapralaya and with his infinite energy dissolves the universe. The picture you see here is Shiva, the Yogesvara."

"In the Hindu Trinity, Brahma has only one form, and is mostly known as Brahma or Brahma Deva," said mummy. "Vishnu has many names but has a single form, the resplendent shanku-chakra-dari, represented differently as MahaVishnu, SatyaNarayana, Venkatesvara and so on. Vishnu takes avatar in a different form in every yuga. Whereas Shiva has countless names and three different forms that are all Shiva, to represent his three powers: the power of yoga, the power of regeneration as daddy said, and the power of dissolution."

"Very well said," said daddy. "I am glad your mummy devotes some of her time for spiritual reading. Unlike many of her friends who are always hooked to the cable TV serials and films."

"Dad, tell us about Shiva's symbols," said Arvind. "There are lots of them in this picture."

"Let's have a paadaadi kesha description of Lord Shiva. From foot to head, remember, and tell me, one by one, what you see."

"Shiva is sitting on a tiger skin," said Arvind.

"The tiger skin is the mat of a yogi, on which he sits while doing tapas. With Shiva, it signifies the energy that is potent in him. Notice that he also wears a tiger skin. In some pictures he wears an elephant's skin indicating that he has conquered pride."

"He is sitting on the cremation ground," observed Padma, "and has ashes all over his body." Arvind tried a mimicry of the nocturnal sounds of cremation ground.

"Shiva controls death and thereby controls rebirth of a soul. When the body of the present birth is reduced to ashes, Shiva blesses the soul with another birth, giving it another chance of spiritual advancement. The ashes indicate the impermanence of this physical body."

"There is a white bull standing behind Shiva," said Arvind.

"Called Nandi, this bull or vrushaba is Shiva's vehicle. The bull is white in color. White is Shiva's color. His abode Kailash is surrounded by snowy mountains. White is the color you get when all colors merge, so it signifies purity and wisdom."

"Shiva has kept a kamandalam or water pot behind him," said Padma. "When he has a jet of Ganga issuing from his head, why does he need water in a pot daddy?"

"A good question. Shiva's kamandalam contains amrutam or nectar. You know how a kamandalam is made?"

Padma sprouted her lips. Arvind nodded his head sideways.

"From a dry pumpkin," said mummy.

"Yes, a kamandalam is made of the shell of a dry pumpkin, after removing the pulp. Shiva's kamandalam indicates that a human who gives up the pulp of worldly desires and hollows the body with breath control, fasting and meditation, will ultimately get the bliss of amrutam welling up within himself."

"Looking at the things around Shiva," said Arvind, "there is a trident or trisulam."

"The trident stands for Shiva's three shaktis or powers. They are ichcha shakti or the power of the will, kriya shakti or the power of action and jnana shakti or the power of knowledge. At a lower level, it represents the three gunas satva, rajas, tamas found in the universe."

"There is a small drum tied to the trident", said Padma.

"Called damaru, this is the drum Shiva uses to issue the primordial cosmic sound aum, the pranava mantra using which Brahma creates the universe. It was Shiva's damaru that produced the 52 alphabets of Sanskrit, the root language of the world. It is also the origin of music. Shiva in the form of Nataraja, is considered the origin of dance and song."

"And then there is a crescent moon," observed Arvind.

"The crescent moon indicates the waxing and waning phases of the cycles of time. The moon is not part of Shiva. He only wears it showing that he is beyond the time cycle."

"Shiva shows the abaya mudra, the sign of protection and blessing," said Padma. "Plus he wears garlands of rudrakshaa beads all over his hands and neck."

"The term rudra, which is a name for Shiva, means strict and uncompromising, and akshaa means the eye. Thus the rudrakshaa beads indicate that Shiva is strict in enforcing the cosmic laws. The rudrakshaa beads have great significance in yoga and meditation. Legend says that the beads were formed out of Shiva's tears of compassion for the souls, whose drops he let fall on the earth. The beads have healing properties. But one thing. The person who wears even a single rudrakshaa bead has to strictly observe certain niyama or regulations."

"I have seen our priest wear a large, gold-laced bead of rudrakshaa on his neck," said Arvind. "Shiva wears a large snake, a cobra, coiled thrice over his neck."

"Snakes, specially cobras are sacred for us Hindus. We worship them because they are associated with the entire Shiva family. Ganesha has a snake for the sacred thread. Muruga has a peacock for his vehicle at whose feat is a cobra. Shiva wears snakes all over his body as seen in some pictures. And snakes are holy for his consort Parvati in her many forms. Vishnu sleeps on the bed of Adi Sesha, the snake with a thousand heads. Snake at a lower level signifies passion and worldly desires. Shiva wears them to assure that he would control the snakes of passion and desire of devotees who surrender to him. At the highest level, a snake stands for the yogic kundalini shakti. Yogis who have this power under control enjoy the bliss of Shiva's nectar."

"Is there any special meaning for the three curls of the snake around Shiva's neck in this picture, dad?"

"The snake that Shiva wears on his neck is the Vasuki, using which the devas and asuras churned the sea of milk. Its three curls denote the passage of time from future through the present to the past. Shiva wears the snake to indicate that he is the master of time, the kala bhairava."

"Very interesting, daddy," said Padma. "Let's move on to Shiva's eyes. Mummy told us that Shiva has three eyes. Isn't the third eye seen as a vertical slit across the three vibuti bands he wears on his forehead?"

"Shiva is called Tryambaka and Trilochana because of his three eyes. Sun is his left eye, moon the right and fire the third. The two eyes of sun and moon indicate Shiva's activity in the physical world. The third eye of fire stands for his activity in the spiritual world. Shiva uses the third eye at the time of dissolution of the universe."

"We have three eyes too, dad?"

"Definitely. The third eye is called the eye of wisdom. It is located between the two eyebrows. When you stimulate this area, as you do when you fix a tilak at that spot, your powers of grasping and learning are roused. This is the reason Hindus, specially women, wear a tilak. When we do constant yoga and meditation, this eye opens gradually. A coconut has three 'eyes', did you ever notice? Which is why we break a coconut in our pujas, to indicate that we have to break our egos to bring out the nectar of sweet water and the sweet, white pulp of the fruit."

"His two eyes are only half-open," said Padma.

"The typical yogic posture. When you are a matured yogi, you don't need to close your eyes fully. Ramana Maharshi used to get into yogic samadhi with his eyes wide open. Shiva's half-open eyes indicate at another level that he is watching the cycle of time between creation that commenced when he opened his eyes, and dissolution that would follow when he would close his eyes ultimately."

"I think we have covered most of the symbols," said Arvind. "Only the locks of hair and the Ganga remain."

"Shiva is known as Jataadara, indicating his three matted locks of hair. The three locks indicate the physical, mental and spiritual energies, the ideal of yoga. The Ganga is the most sacred river of the Hindus. She was brought to the earth by Bhageeratha through his long and intense tapas. When Ganga came down from the heavens in a torrential downpour, the merciful Lord Shiva received her on his matted locks and let her flow as seven different rivers, three towards the west, three towards the east and one to the patala loka, to resurrect the 60,000 ancestors of Bhageeratha, who were held there in the form of ashes because of a curse from Kapila rishi. At a higher level, Ganga indicates divine consciousness that flows from the heavens through the human body in the form of kundalini shakti and lies dormant in the base chakra, the equivalent of patala loka. Shiva wearing Ganga is known as Gangaadara."

"Arvind, we missed the kundalams or ear rings."

"The ear ring on the left side is the type worn by women, here it signifies Shiva's consort Shakti who is always joined to him on the left side. Shiva is the god who is woman on the left half side and man on the right half-- ardhanarisvara. The right ear ring is the type worn by men. The rings are called alakshya meaning that which can't be shown by signs or symbols and the niranjana, that which can't be seen with mortal eyes."

"We understand now why Shiva is unique," said the children. "His consort is unique too?" asked Arvind.

"Shiva's consort Parvati is unique in the sense that she has all the three powers of Shiva: ichcha, kriya and jnana--the power of will, action and wisdom. The picture we have here is that of Durga, a form of Parvati. She is all action here, waging war against evil forces. She has eighteen hands. Her ten hands possess the powers of MahaVishnu in his ten avatars, the remaining eight, which you see here, have weapons. Notice they include a conch, a chakra and a mace--all Vishnu's symbols. She also holds a trident and a sword, and her vehicle is the powerful and ferocious tiger."

"Parvati is normally seen with Shiva," observed Padma, "but she is alone in her other forms, isn't it so mom?"

"You're right," said mummy. "Parvati in her own, native form is always part of Shiva. Her hallmark is tapas. Whenever she happens to take an avatar in human form and stay away from Shiva, she performs intense tapas to get back to him. Her other forms such as Durga, Kamakshi, Lalita and so on show her different powers and features."

"People who worship Shiva primarily are called Saivites. People who worship Vishnu are called Vaishnavites. There are thousands of people who worship Shakti primarily, and they are called Saktas. These are the three main bakti streams of Sanatana Dharma."

They were sipping strong, hot tea at the end of a sumptuous breakfast. Mummy finished first and started clearing the dishes. Padma finished her tea and rose to help mummy.

"A very nice discussion dad," said Arvind. "Since we have already finished our school homework, can we watch the cartoon channels on TV now?"

"Enjoy yourselves," said daddy, "but don't skip your studies or household work."