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Thread: 18 armed Shiva - Dhyan Shloks

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    18 armed Shiva - Dhyan Shloks

    Namaste

    I recall reading in the Linga Purana, I believe part 2, a description of an 18 armed form of Shiva; can anyone remember (or find out) where exactly, and perhaps post the shloks here?

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    Re: 18 armed Shiva - Dhyan Shloks

    hari o
    ~~~~~~

    namasté

    Why 18 arms ? What do they represent ?


    praām
    यतसà¥à¤¤à¥à¤µà¤‚ शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṠśivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

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    Re: 18 armed Shiva - Dhyan Shloks

    hari o
    ~~~~~~

    namasté
    Quote Originally Posted by yajvan View Post
    Why 18 arms ? What do they represent ?

    We are told about the 18-armed one, svachandanātha ( some spell svacchandanātha) from a tantric or kaśmir śaivism POV and
    from the śilpa śāstra-s. Yet we cannot talk of 18 arms (sādhāraṇa&#185 without talking of the number of heads or faces ( sometimes said
    'mouths' ) of śiva.
    We hear of śiva having a single head , up to one thousand heads. In the case of the 18 armed śiva we will use 5 heads. All mean something, tell us something , in symbols.


    Yet let's start with the answer first and if there is interest from the reader we will go deeper into the subject. What are the 18 'arms' ?
    • manas-tattva
    • buddhi-tattva
    • ahaṁkāra-tattva
    • 5 vāyu-s within the body e.g. prāṇa, apāna, samāna,udāna, and vyāna
    • 5 jñānendriya-s or organs of knowledge i.e. smell, taste, touch, sight, and hearing
    • 5 karmendriya-s or organs of action i.e. generation or reproduction, excretion, mobilty or movement, holding or grasping, and that of speech.
    These are the 18 arms śiva offers for the protection of the individual. They are derived from His 5 śakti-s, in this case which are the basis for His 5 heads or faces.

    praām


    words
    • śilpa śāstra-s - śilpa = the art of variegating , variegated or diversified appearance , decoration , ornament , artistic work;
      64 such arts or crafts , called bāhya-kalā or ' external or practical arts' are offered like carpentering , architecture , jewellery, acting , dancing , music , medicine , poetry, etc.
    • 18 arms is sometimes referred to as His sādhāraṇa form - it is defined as 'common to all , universal'; yet the beauty of this
      name also means the 18th year of Jupiter's cycle of 60 years . So, in one word śiva is defined as universal, common to
      all , and 18 armed
    यतसà¥à¤¤à¥à¤µà¤‚ शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṠśivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

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    Re: 18 armed Shiva - Dhyan Shloks

    Namaste Yajvan-ji

    Thank you for the insightful question.

    My basic understanding, as explained to me by my guru, is that the 18 armed forms of Shiva, and Durga, represent 18 areas of activity to dissolve the 18 areas of ego-consciousness, a figure arrived at by considering the ego as 3-fold, and spanning 6 internal regions from muladhar to ajna.

    Additionally, I understand the 18 arm form in particular as a summation of divine powers and weapons for the purpose of subjugating demons.

    Perhaps another correlation is the 4 Vedas + 14 Vidyasthanas, with Shiva/Durga as their progenitor and thus likened to arms. I know you have posted very illuminating material on the vidyasthanas already.

    In searching for a more complete answer to this, I went through my e-library and found:
    • In the Mahanirvana tantra, 6 Narasimha chakras are given, with 3 fold application to each
    • The Svacchanadanatha form possesses 18 arms
    • Abhinavagupta mentions 18 nitya kalas (the visible 15, the inferred 16, and 2 supramundane) - I feel this is extremely important if not in this context than another
    At that point, within this mass of vowels, whose nature is that it is full because it unites everything, the Emissional Power so called, comes to be and that is a power which is known also as dispersion or projection. (viksepa).45
    "In the next verse Abhinavagupta plays with the notion of the visarga as the sixteenth vowel by suggesting that there are two further parts to it, a seventeenth part in which there is a separation, and an eighteenth part related to the concept of perturbation:"
    A seventeenth part is known as the "separation" (vislesa) of the visarga. In some texts there is mention of yet another, an eighteenth part due to another perturbation.'"
    [Paul Eduardo Muller Ortega - The Triadic Heart of Siva, pg 134]



    • Abhinavagupta also mentions 18 tattvas, in the context of 'faculties which proceed from consciousness like rays of light to make contact with objects, composing the ashuddha tattvas minus the mahabhutas
    ◦ In Isvarapratyabhijnavimarsini, vol.3, p.212, Abhinava gives another listing which comprises eighteen elements. [Footnote in John R. Dupuche's "The Kula Ritual," page 55]

    • An article called “Problematic Aspects of the Sexual Rituals of the Bauls of Bengal” says on page 421 in the journal (35 in the pdf) that the Bauls have a system of 18 stations (mokam/mukam ) in the body
    The Malinivijayottara per Somadeva Vasudeva, states:
    "The M ̄alin ̄ıvijayottara adds the injunction that the breath may not be held in the eyes after it has been retained in a minor limb. The ̄I ́s ̄ana ́sivagurudevapaddhati enumerates eighteen such places of retention:114 the big toes, the ankles, the shanks, the knees, the thighs, the anus, the penis, the waist, the abdominal bulb (kanda), the navel, the heart, the chest, the throat, the soft palate, the nose, the eyes, the space between the eyebrows and the head. "
    The immediate practical interest in this question is that a group I am associated with is building a temple which will have a prominent murthi of 18-armed Durga, and I wanted to compare the various dhyan shloks for 18 armed Shiva/Durga. I am nearly certain that the implements held by the 18 arm Shiva of the Linga Purana is the same as in the Devi Mahatmya, but want to confirm.

    Looking forward to your illuminating words on this topic or any of the others touched upon.

    Edit: I'm sorry my reply got in late - crashes actually ate my draft twice before I figured I needed to write it in Word. I see that those illuminating words have already come in! Thank you.

    Can we make a small project of tying the various concepts above together? Which puzzle pieces fit this particular puzzle and which don't?

    Namaste

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    Re: 18 armed Shiva - Dhyan Shloks

    Namaste Yajvan-ji

    Yet we cannot talk of 18 arms (sādhāraṇa¹) without talking of the number of heads or faces ( sometimes said
    'mouths' ) of śiva.
    We hear of śiva having a single head , up to one thousand heads. In the case of the 18 armed śiva we will use 5 heads. All mean something, tell us something , in symbols.
    No doubt a key point! As Sadashiva also possesses 5 heads, yet 10 arms, could this then be linked also to the classification of siddhis? 8 + 10?

    Also perhaps is that the reason for omitting the bhutas in the 18 tattvas/arms, in that the 5 heads of Sadashiva represent, amongst other things, the bhutas (and as you mention, the 5 shaktis), and by extension also Svacchandanath? Might we call Svacchandanath the 'secret' form where Sadashiva is the 'inner' form?

    Are the 5 pranas to be equivalent to the 5 tanmatras (insofar as that prana is correlated to the same force which generates that sensation), or that the tanmatras are also excluded with the mahabhutas?

    Insofar as Kubjika is the inner analog of Durga, I suppose equivalent to Svacchandanath, is there a corresponding Kubjika form with 18 arms?

    In regards to the note about Jupiter, I regret that jyotish is a subject I am entirely ignorant in. I know nothing, and I feel that as a result of this ignorance, I am missing a great deal of the significance of your statement, which is regrettable. Would you mind filling in more completely the context for my limited understanding in this area, and other interested readers who are not so versed in jyotish?

    I just want to say that I am truly thrilled to imbibe your vast knowledge on these topics and also welcome the contributions of anyone else. On a minor note, I am still looking to find the Linga Purana verses if anyone knows.

    Pranam

  6. #6

    Re: 18 armed Shiva - Dhyan Shloks

    very deep one.

    i cant imeagine how Yajvan doing his daily sadhana

    OM. VAJRA. VISHNUYA. SVAHA
    OM. VAJRA. GARUDA. CALE CALE. HUM PHAT


    OM. AMOGHA VAIROCANA. MAHA-MUDRA. MANI PADMA JVALA PRAVARTTAYA. HUM

    Om Saha Nau-Avatu |
    Saha Nau Bhunaktu |
    Saha Viiryam Karava-Avahai |
    Tejasvi Nau-Adhii-Tam-Astu Maa Vidviss-Aavahai |
    Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||


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    Re: 18 armed Shiva - Dhyan Shloks

    Quote Originally Posted by Shuddhasattva View Post
    Can we make a small project of tying the various concepts above together? Which puzzle pieces fit this particular puzzle and which don't?

    Yes, We can do this...

    Also note the relevence of 18 on the vedānta/śāṁkhya side of the equation.Some ideas can be read here on HDF:

    http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/sho...69&postcount=7

    http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/sho...7&postcount=32

    http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/sho...?t=1882&page=5

    http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/sho...7&postcount=60


    praām
    यतसà¥à¤¤à¥à¤µà¤‚ शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṠśivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

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