nidhana-pataya namaH | nidhana-patAntikAya namaH |
UrdhvAya namaH | UrdhvalingAya namaH |
hiraNyAya namaH | hiraNyalingAya namaH |
suvarNAya namaH | suvarNalingAya namaH |
divyAya namaH | divyalingAya namaH |
bhavAya namaH | bhavalingAya namaH |
Sarvaya namaH | SarvalingAya namaH |
SivAya namaH | SivalingAya namaH |
jvalAya namaH | jvalalingAya namaH |
AtmAya namaH | AtmalingAya namaH |
paramAya namaH | paramalingAya namaH |
etat somasya sUryasya sarvalingasthApayati pANimantraM pavitram |

Salutations to the Lord, the Dissolver of the Universe. Salutations to Lord, the Ender of the Lord of Dissolution.

Salutations to the Highest One. Salutations to the Highest Icon the Lord.

Salutations to the Golden One. Salutations to the Golden Icon the Lord.

Salutations to the Splendrous One. Salutations to the Splendrous Icon the Lord.

Salutations to the Effulgent One. Salutations to the Effulgent Icon of the Lord.

Salutations to the Source of All (outflow at creation). Salutations to the Icon of the Lord, the Source of All.

Salutations to the Suppressor of All (inflow at dissolution). Salutations to the Icon the Lord, the Suppressor of All.

Salutations to the Auspicious One. Salutations to the Auspicious Icon of the Lord.

Salutations to Brilliant. Salutations to the Brilliant Icon of the Lord.

Salutations to the Soul of All. Salutations the Icon of the Lord, the Soul of All.

Salutations to the Supreme One. Salutations the Supreme Icon of the Lord.

All is purified upon repetition of these mantras holding in the hand the Linga Icon, which represents Soma and Surya.

(Ref : shivadarshana.blogspot.com/2007/05/shivopasana-mantras.html)

These hymns from the Taittareya Aranyaka, usually chanted at the end of the Rudrabhishekam used to be my wake-up call since my childhood. My father strictly adhered to chanting the whole hymn along with Namakam and Chamakam at least four times a week. My mother and father also used to stay up all the night during Shivaratri and perform the ritual eleven times while I used to take a break to catch up on a Puranic film telecast by the much loved regional Doordarshan. Let me stop the gush of the childhood nostalgia and flash forward to the present day.

As if to make people like me just feel relatively better about themselves, there is a breed of this new age wannabe progressives who find it extremely satisfying to refer to the Shivalinga as phallus/penis. Pot shots are taken with extreme lack of sensibilities. Of course they can run back to hide behind the skirts of ‘freedom of expression’ when challenged. Reminds me of a certain episode in the Puranas where the demons used to harass the rishis and then run to hide in the Ashrama of Rishi Bhrigu’s wife when the Devas came to take them to task.

Parking them aside, I marvel at the evolution that our civilization has achieved. RC Majumdar in his historical book Ancient India, observes that the Indus valley civilization had structures of temples dedicated to lingam as well as the Yoni (female reproductive organ), thus revering the primordial father and mother. I repeat this is the unique wonder of our civilization where the religion accepted the primal instinct and elevated it to the worshippable pedestal. Millennia passed and this sensibility and reverence only grew among the populace. The concept of lingam evolved. From the primal father to the most beloved God known for his large hearted acceptance of a learned priest as well as an ignorant hunter who offered him uncooked meat for worshipped. From this beloved God, he became the universal spirit. Those knowing even the cursory meaning of the Rudram chants would acknowledge the universal concept. The hymn encompasses every tangible and intangible elements that make up our social structure and even the wider ecological construct. This symbolic lingam thus, became the one illuminating the depths of our own minds, the Atma linga. He became the one with our consciousness, he became the bliss, Ananda that elevates our consciousness.

Those who are knowingly or unknowingly stuck with their obsession with the superfluous phallus, they have my pity. Probably, the 16^th century poem by Mahakavi Dhurjati in his anthology Srikalahastishwara Shatakam can help them.

నిన్నే రూపముగా భజింతు మదిలో, నీ రూపు మోకాలో? స్త్రీ

చన్నో? కుంచమొ? మేక పెంటికయొ? యీ సందేహముల్మాన్పి,

నా కన్ను లన్ఖవదీయమూర్తి సగుణాకారంబుగాఁ జూపవే

చిన్నీరేజ విహారమత్త మధుపా! శ్రీకాళహస్తీశ్వరా!

Let me think of you in my mind. What do I know if your form is like the knee joint or the breast of a woman or the excreta of a goat? Cure me of these doubts and grant me the vision of your true form adorned with the Gunas, O Kalahastishwara; the lord who is like the bee that buzzes around the lotus of my consciousness.

I firmly believe that Shiva, the lovable guy that he is, will gladly grace them only if their intent is honest. Not only the medieval Telugu literature, but Tollywood of yester years too gave its solution in this superhit folklore film Paramanandayya Sishyula Katha (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXz459HSiT0). The story revolves around King Nandivardhana, who is a slave to his indulgences, but retains the habit of worshipping Shiva regularly without fail. When caught in a situation where he cannot make it to the temple before the stipulated time, he seeks to find Lord Shiva in one of the very places that Mahakavi Dhurjati chose to mention in the above poem! (Watch the video from 30:00 onwards to find out and do follow the dialogue between Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi). But the moral of the story was that the devotion of Nandivardhana was honest.

Those who still believe in dishonest display of ‘liberal’ thought by obnoxious lack of sensitivity and make references to the ‘phallus’ only to demean and provoke and let me not forget, leverage the outrage and clickonomics. The civilization you mock has gone too a long distance to the words of Adishankara, Chidananda Roopah Shivoham Shivoham.