Shiv and Shakti are the epitome of love, power, and togetherness. Maha Shivratri is the festival of convergence of Shiva and Shakti the celestial union of Shiva and Shakti and it signifies the unification of everything through supreme conscious and energy. The divine energy is embodied in Shiva, which literally means “that which is not.” The Hindu spirituality, emanated from the revelation of Vedas and other scriptures, provided deeper insights into the supreme conscious, Shiva and the supreme energy, Shakti. While modern science is getting into the realm of those revelations and enabling us to appreciate the existence and the fundamental quality of the cosmos and its vast nothingness, we are inspired by Hindu spirituality that tries to unify our conscious to the supreme conscious, on the most auspicious day of Maha Shiva Ratri, we commemorate the union of Shiva and Shakti.

Shiva, Shakti and Union: Maha Shiva Ratri

On Shiva Ratri, we offer our salutations and offerings to our supreme conscious to acknowledge that the creation and existence of the universe are pivoted to the union of Shiva and Shakti. Legend has it that when Shiva lost Shakti (Sati), the dynamic power, and the void of Shakti (energy) unsettled Shiva and he performed Rudra Tandava. In absence of Shakti, Shiva took abode in the Himalayas and as Adi Yogi, he transcended into deep meditation. Shakti took a re-birth as Parvati (Uma) and through devotion woke up Shiva from asceticism, and a day before Amavasya in the month of Phalgun wedding ceremony was performed. This day of the union of God Shiva and Shakti is celebrated as Mahashivratri every year.

Spirituality entails seeking, including seeking answers to deeper and wider aspects of all that we can perceive and those that are beyond our perception. Central to the seeking is knowing all about us, as being, as part of the universe; the purpose and the process of all that has existed. All that exists is the result of the unification of ‘purpose and process’. Shiva embodies the purpose and Shakti embodies the process and union of both is what our conscious perceives intuitively or directly as the whole universe, and Shiva Ratri is that eternal and transcendental unification that encompasses everything that has existed in time and space.

Hindu spirituality entailing seeking and getting insights can be discerned from scriptures compiled many thousand years back. The Nasadiya Sukta (129th hymn of the 10th mandala of the Rigveda) is one of the oldest hymns in Hinduism which deals with the origin of the universe, creation, existence, reality, appearance, and evolution, and thus called Hymn of Creation.

Three parts of Nasadiya Sukta (RV 10.129) provide attributes and purpose of the universe: “Neither was there non-existence, nor was there existence then neither was there land, nor the heaven/sky beyond that. What then enshrouded this universe? In the receptacle of what was it contained? Then there was neither death nor immortality; then there was neither day, nor night, nor light, nor darkness; only the Existent One breathed calmly, self-contained. In the beginning, there was darkness, intensified darkness, indistinguishable darkness; the visible world was reduced to its primordial nature. This primordial world, enveloped by the All-pervading power of One Before whom the world of matter is a trifle became One (that is, came into existence) through the force of His intense activity and spiritual fervor.”

In Rig Veda, Rishi Hiranyagarbha Prajapatya provided Hiranyagarbha Sukta (RV 10.121) to underscore the unmanifested creation from which everything emanated. Everything that emanated from the Hiranyagarbha (golden womb) was part of the purpose and process, meaning the result of the union of Shiva and Shakti. The nothingness transferred into some matter comprising energy, and atoms, elements, and molecules formed.

According to Shaivism, Shiva is the conscious and aware (purpose) of everything that comes into creation, and things that exist or are being created (process) are created by Shakti energy. The universe cannot exist without the union of both, and we cannot have one without the other. Shiva Ratri signifies the integration of Shiva and Shakti within our inner consciousness and thus integrated with the universe.

The feminine aspect, Shakti, from which things of creation came into being has become an inherent attribute for all of us and in everything. All the processes that manifest, that we can or cannot perceive are Shakti energy, while the purpose embodied in Shiva is formless for our consciousness. The Shakti energy is known as para-shakti (transcendental energy), apara-shakti (immanent energy), and para-apara-shakti (intermediary energy), and it is considered to be flown through our nadis and connected to our consciousness, the Shiva. In the human body, Shakti and Shiva can unite through kundalini, coiled energy at the base of the spine that lies dormant until it is unleashed. When kundalini awakening (manifestation of Shakti energy) occurs, seven chakras, connected through Sushumna nadi, trigger the transformation to harvest internal Shakti energy and take the being into the spiritual or nonphysical realm where it meets Shiva.

Rig Veda revealed Shiva as Rudra, “conscious knower” (RV 1.43), Lord of the Universe (RV 2.33.9), Father of the Universe (RV 6.49.10), no one is mightier than Rudra (RV 2.33.10), and whom no one may overcome (RV 7.46.1).

It is revealed in the Shakta hymn (Saundaryalahari; c. 800 CE) that “If Shiva is united with Shakti, he is able to create. If he is not, he is incapable even of stirring.” It is also construed that for the universe, Shakti is the embodiment of energy and dynamism, and all action, therefore, Shakti is considered to be the cosmos itself. Shiva is the conscious, the ultimate intelligence, the purpose, and he is the transcendent masculine complement of Shakti. “There is no Shiva without Shakti, or Shakti without Shiva, and the universe came into being and exists because the two became one”. Shiva's drum (damru) may also symbolize the universe (Shiv, the pure conscious), which is always expanding and collapsing (Shakti) providing the cosmic rhythm and the non-dual nature of life and the universe.

Shivaratri is about Satyam (the Truth of everything that exists), Shivam (Innocence of conscious), and Sundaram (The beauty of eternal congruence of Shiv and Shakti). It reminds us to repose in our being and unite to the supreme power, the conscious of everything, the non-dual reality, infinity, the universe and the entire creation.

Shiva is the Consciousness of the Universe

Shiva is pure consciousness, non-dual, doesn’t have a body, present everywhere as a space of deep silence and stillness where all the activities of the mind dissolve, the fourth state of consciousness, and the meditative state that expands the perceptions to a full awakening. Sri Rudram verse of Yajur Veda (YV 16.18) mentions Rudra as Lord of the Universe, and Taittiriya Aranyaka of Yajur Veda (10.24.1) mentions Rudra as the universal existent ("all this" and Supreme Person or inner Self). Shiva is the manifestation of infinite vastness, profound depth, and limitless wisdom; thus, it is the whole intelligence of the universe and is conscious of everything and nothingness.

Shiva is the constitutive elements, the spirit, or the masculine principle, while Shakti is the dynamic potency, the matter, or the feminine principle, of the universe. Shiva is pure conscious, transcendence and nothingness and Shakti is energy and action with all forces (such as Kali and Durga).

In Hindu spirituality, Shiva is “that which is not”, which means he is the nothingness from which everything is created and manifested. In the world, manifestation has duality and has two parts, the observed and the observer. To materialize both the observed and the observer, Shakti or energy manifests itself as consciousness. Consciousness, which is in all of us, enables us to perceive and experience reality. We as conscious are part of the pure conscious, the universe, thus we have emerged from nothingness and return to nothingness, as part of the eternal union of Shiva and Shakti.

The Vedas say that 'nothingness' is pure consciousness, the ultimate source of knowledge, the horizon of the manifestation; and that we seek in Hindu spirituality. The logical and scientific perspective has deduced the most enigmatic spiritual concept- Nothingness and found that nothingness does not equal emptiness. Therefore, for the notion that everything has been created from nothingness, reductionists are now following the same quest as to why I was something created, why so many different entities were created, and if something can be created from nothing in lab.

Scientists have estimated that the universe has only about 5% of atoms and the rest are mysterious constituents, which include about 72% gravitationally repulsive dark energy, 20% gravitationally attractive dark matter that encompasses mysterious energy-fluid, which is the key force behind the cosmic expansion. Dark matter is believed to be made up of exotic particles like axions or WIMPS (weakly interacting massive particles). Only 5% of the universe gave rise to all living and nonliving matters, planets, and stars etc. For modern day scientists, it is enigmatic what is the use of dark energy. If not in the creation of matter, then are they used in the creation of souls? Is dark energy something that exists in some other dimensions that are yet to be discovered, or cannot ever be perceived? Or the dark energy is the Kali (the Shakti), homogeneously unified with Shiva, the conscious, from where the matters of universe are created?

Einstein brought about the theory of relativity to correlate energy and mass E = mc 2. If we rearrange this famous equation, we get m = E/c 2. This may not appear as extraordinary as Einstein’s equation but, we may get non-ceremonious yet interesting insight. If we calm down energy, something like Shiva does to Shakti, to the extent of square of speed of light, we get mass. So, doesn’t it point to that unification of Shiva (ever-still and nothingness) with Shakti is the source of creation of the mass thus the universe?

Some may find it counterintuitive that vacuum is emptiness wherein we can’t create matter in it. But that limited scientific notion does not hold much ground anymore after the postulation of Hedrik Casimir and Dirk Polder (In 1948) the 'zero-point energy' exists in vacuum and it can operate at the quantum level. This provides scientific evidence of force existing in vacuum. In addition, atoms have 99.99% empty space. Therefore, Shiva and Shakti can exist together in nothingness. This further posit that as much as universe exists outside as much as it exists within the body and pure consciousness has a continuation all through.

In Hindu spirituality every entity, the self, be it the vast universe to as micro as atom, is this Brahm, and expressed as “tat tvam asi” (you are that) (Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7 of the Sama Veda), Ayam Atma Brahma "This Self (Atman) is Brahman" (Mandukya Upanishad 1.2 of the Atharva Veda), “Aham Brahmāsmi" “I am Brahman", or "I am Divine" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 of the Yajur Veda), and “Prajnanam Brahma” "Conscious is Brahman” (Aitareya Upanishad 3.3 of the Rig Veda).

Today, the boundaries between science and spirituality appeared to be blurred. What Hindu sages revealed in Veda, today scientists are agreeing to it, that the universe has no beginning and no end, and it is unified by its own intelligence or consciousness and energy; Shiva and Shakti. Human perception is the minutest piece of that intelligence and thus it appears to be humanely impossible to understand the origin and evolution of nothingness leading to universe and reconcile all that with the laws that operate in the quantum space.

The primordial essence of the duality of universe involving energy and matter may need us to dive in the micro-structures such as in the nucleus of atoms. The subatomic particles acquiring mass in Boson field from Boson is akin to the same concept of unification of Shakti and Shiva, the basic Spirit-Substance duality. Boson field provides boson to what it unites with, and as a result mass is created and that in turn creates gravitational attraction. This can conceptually be intertwined with the string theory, and envisioned that all strings vibrate at subatomic level enabling four forces to work and allow the incompatible time space and quantum both to functions without duality. However, when we consider the universe within, within us as living being, we need to invoke a metaphysical explanation for the unison of spirit and matter creating us as a being, the beings who have ability to perceive certain level of physical manifestations of conscious of the universe. Shri Krishna revealed that the soul is neither born, nor does it ever die; nor having once existed, does it ever cease to be. The soul is without birth, eternal, immortal, and ageless. It is not destroyed when the body is destroyed (Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2, Verse 20). This provides us with the reasoning that conscious of universe existed as spirit even before matter was created, say at the Big Bang.

The Purusha Sukta (RV 10.90) revealed the divine unity of transcendence and manifestation forming the universe in space and time involving Viswakarma, Hiranyagarbha or Prajapati. Vedas revealed about creation and insights provided fulfills the premise of the cause and action’ to explain the purpose and actor involved in the universe. However, the modern science faces severe limitation in explaining the process of creation. The best so far, the Big Bang theory and the Steady State theory, do not quite hold good anymore.

Hindu scriptures have many insights, and one, that is provided in Srimada Bhagavatam (Chapter 2.5 and 3.10), has scintillating description of the process of creation of the universe. In Hindu scriptures, the process of manifestation of matter and the Universe have been described as Panchikaranam (five acting or interplay) which are also known as the Pancha Bhuta or primordial elements (Akash or space, Vayu or air, Tejas or fire, Apah or water, and Prithvi or earth). All these emanated from unification of Shiva and Shakti, and today’s science of relativity, quantum mechanics or any other theories cannot potentially perceive it.

Relativity and Quantum Mechanics all Merge into Spirituality

On June 18, 2004, at the European Center for Research in Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva a 2-meter-tall statue of Shiva Nataraja was unveiled. Indian government donated the statue to celebrate the CERN’s long association with India working on the quest as to how matter came into being to unravel the process of formation of the universe. Nataraja symbolizes Shiva’s cosmic dance of creation and destruction, an attribute of the unification of Shiva and Shakti, and is an integral part of Hindu spirituality.

Humanity’s quest about the origin of the Universe and the origin of life has always been challenged by scientists. The physical limitations and so far, scientists have only been able to peek back in time to 300,000 years post-Big Bang. Humanity is totally blinded about time preceding the Big Bang and cannot gain any perception of what kind of forces were there and whether General Relativity was effective on matter and energy, and could cause spacetime to curve to generate a gravitational field holding cosmic bodies. As such general relativity does not hold well at singularity inside a black hole. To that primordial stage, the Standard Model of particle physics, describing the quantum fields apparently from which the Big Bang ensued does not hold well either.

In agreement with revelations in the Vedas about the creation of the universe, the scientific community has unified on the fact that the universe did not begin to exist at some point, and that Big Bang is not the beginning of space, time, energy, and everything that we know and experience. Furthermore, even that the primordial cosmic state had its origins, it is postulated that ‘cosmic inflation’ akin to the unification of Shiva and Shakti caused the manifestation of beings. The process has the shape of Shiva Linga a sacred symbol of Hinduism.

Credit: C.-A. Faucher-Giguere, A. Lidz, and L. Hernquist, Science, 2008

It is in agreement with Vedic insight about the pure consciousness, Shiva, existing without the unification with Shakti, without any manifestation, the primordial cosmic existence does not leave us with any perception of the state prior to the inflation. The Vedas, the oldest documented literature of the human race take us into the realm of spirituality that is transcendental and that exists beyond the physically known universe.

Shiva and Shakti are the God Equation

“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light‐years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”

― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Our perceptions are primarily based on senses that are incredibly amazing. However, they lack the adequate resolution to perceive events that are at a cosmic level. As we cannot experience the pain of DNA breaks or collision of nervous impulses that travel up to 300 kms a hour, we can’t perceive the extreme gravitation force when we come across atom-sized primordial Black holes that weigh millions of tons. Then again, realities collapse and form a reality in a given time and space to further blur the perception completely disrupting our sensitivity to all the data from all that exists or had historical traces.

To perceive the infinite space, nothingness, timelessness, vibration of strings, the subtle creation and destruction processes, we need to be able to read the conscious of the universe, God’s mind, the Shiva, Shakti and their unison. The Vedas revealed these, but it is not intuitive to everyone, especially who are not versed in Vedic Sanskrit. It’s a travesty as rather than opening of conscience to connect to the supreme conscience, as revealed in the Hindu scriptures, due to the limitation of our perception, we are unable to define everything in this universe.

But Hindu spirituality has it all in OM, which is made up of three and half sounds – ‘Aa’, ‘Oo’, ‘M’ and a silent half sound. OM is the expression of supreme conscious, divine energy incomprehensible for human mind. The central point of the creation of this universe is referred to as Para Brahma and OM is its energy source. To feel the energies of OM one has to be in peace with no thoughts, desires, or expectations left in mind. OM has half silent sound which is called ‘nothing’ or zero or peace and that is nothing but transcendent to Shiva-Shakti. The most powerful mantra "Om Namah Shivaya" has five sounds, and symbolize the five elements in creation—earth, water, fire, air, and space. The five elements (Shiva), including energy (Shakti) are the building blocks of everything in creation.

Invoking contemporary scientific insights, needed for the Universe to be formed, with various entities an invisible force field, the 'Higgs field' and associated particle, the 'Higgs boson' was formed. The unification of particles with the 'Higgs field' gained mass via the Higgs boson and created matter. This appears as the subatomic explanation of the unification of Shiva and Shakti and the name 'The God particle’, coined by the physicist Leon Lederman (1993) in the popular science book, The God Particle appears to be congruent with the alignment of science and spirituality. Scientists have postulated that Higgs boson only existed in the high-energy conditions of the early universe, and it is behind the process of providing a mass of particles. Therefore, without the God Particle, there are no stars, no planets, no galaxies and no human beings.

‘I want to know how God created this world. I’m not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are just details.’ – Albert Einstein

Einstein meant unified field theory, the ‘theory of everything’ to read the mind of God. Pure conscious is the mind of God and pure conscious has the transcendental and manifestation of Shiva and Shakti. Human perception is infinitesimally narrow comprising of sustenance and survival of life and precludes most of the cosmic perceptions. The three dimensions that underscore the spacetime for physical bodies in this universe fall short to unify the theory of relativity and the theory of quantum mechanics. It takes the reductionists’ thinking in the realm of spirituality that the Vedas revealed to humankind have more dimensions. The dimensions emanate from the unification of Shiv and Shakti.

In an attempt to find a ‘theory of everything’ a group of eminent scientists has come up with string theory, conceptualizing particles as strings and the interaction of strings in space. The string theory claims to link the theory covering large-scale to the small-scale entities of the universe and emulates the prime attributes of God.

Theoretical physicist, and cofounder of String Field Theory, Dr. Michio Kaku turned Einstein’s quest into a beautiful theory that unites the four fundamental forces of nature (gravitational, electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and strong nuclear) into a single grand unified theory of everything. Dr. Michio Kaku calls it the theory of Everything, The God Equation as it signifies the unification of God’s all manifestations through the forces. All these sophisticated concepts align with what Hindu spirituality has revealed in its various scriptures- the unification of Shiv, the conscious and Shakti, the forces. Scientific endeavors have gotten us the God Equation to help us understand the intelligence of the universe, and spirituality has gotten us the belief of the unification of Shiva and Shakti for transcendent and manifest, and thus the unification of Shiva and Shakti is God’s Equation and as reminded by Shiva Ratri it can only be experienced through unifying the conscious with the supreme conscious.

Image source: Astro Anuradha Vedic Astrologer