Lord Shiva is the protector of all beings, the destroyer of sins and the lord of the gods. He is pure, changeless, attributeless, all pervading transcendental consciousness. When there is neither light nor darkness, neither form nor energy, neither sound nor matter, when there is no manifestation of phenomenal existence, Shiva alone exists in himself. He is timeless, spaceless, birthless, deathless, decayless. He is beyond the pairs of opposites. He is the Absolute Brahman. He is untouched by pleasure and pain, good and evil. He cannot be seen by the eyes, but he can be realized within the heart through devotion and meditation.
When Shiva is identified with his power, he is also the supreme personal god. He is then the omnipotent, omniscient active god. He dances in supreme joy and creates, sustains and destroys with the rhythm of his dancing movements. Shiva destroys all the bondage, limitation and sorrow of his devotees. He is the giver of mukti, final emancipation. He is the universal Self. He is the true self of all creatures. All individuals and the world originate from him, exist in him, are sustained and rejected by him and are ultimately merged in him. He is the support, source and substratum of the whole world. He is the embodiment of truth, beauty, goodness and bliss.
He is the god of gods. He is the great deity – Mahadeva.
He is the most awe inspiring and terrifying deity and also the most easily pleased. He is accessible to all. He is the source of all knowledge and wisdom. He is the ideal yogi. He is the ideal head of the ideal family.
Shiva is the unchanging consciousness. Shakti is his changing power, which appears as mind and matter. Just as a husband and wife look after the well being of the family, Shiva and Shakti are engaged in looking after the affairs of the world. Shiva and Shakti are inseparable, like fire and heat. They are essentially one. Shiva is the waveless ocean. Shakti is the ocean with waves. Shakti creates. Without Shiva, Shakti has no existence and without Shakti, Shiva has no expression.
The name of Lord Shiva chanted in any way is sure to give the desired result. The glory of Shiva’s name cannot be established through reasoning and intellect. It can certainly be experienced or realized only through devotion, faith and constant repetition of his name and singing his hymns with bhava, intense feeling. The mind is purified by constant repetition of Shiva’s name. It strengthens good samskaras. “As you think, so you become” is the psychological law. Lord Shiva’s name has the power to burn sins, samskaras and vasanas or seed desires and to bestow eternal bliss and everlasting peace. The individual mind melts in the cosmic mind.