Shiv and Shakti : The concept of Ardhanareeswara

In Hinduism, the concept of 'Ardhnarishwar' is popularly celebrated. The idea talks about the feminine side of every male and the masculine side of every female. According to the legend, we have a story about Shiva and Shakti. This legend is an essential part of the festival of Mahashivratri and talks about the marriage of Bhagwan Shiv to Mata Parvati.

The legend goes like this, according to the source of different texts including Ramcharit Manas and Valmiki Ramayan and Shiv Puran, once Bhagwan Shiv and Mata Sati went to Sage Agastya Ashram to listen to Ram and Sita living story. When they were returning from the Ashram of the sage Agastya through a forest Bhagwan Shiv saw Bhagwan Ram (an incarnation of god Vishnu) searching for his wife Sita who was kidnapped by the King of Lanka, Ravan.

Upon seeing the Bhagwan Ram, Shiv bowed his head in reverence to Bhagwan Ram. Devi Sati was very surprised by this behavior of Bhagwan Shiv and out of curiosity she asked god Shiv about his previous action. She become curious as to why Bhagwan was paying so much respect to a mortal man. Shiv told her about the Bhagwan Ram as the incarnation of Vishnu ji. Devi Sati was not at all satisfied with this explanation so Bhagwan Shiv asked her to go and verify this truth herself.

Devi sati as she was a goddess herself had the power to change her forms. So she changed her form and appeared as Devi Sita in front of Bhagwan Ram. Ram as Bhagwan himself knew the true identity of the Devi so he asked her "Maa, why are you alone here, where is Prabhu Shiv? Now Sati knew the truth about Bhagwan Ram.

But to know that truth she changed her form to Sita and so her status has changed. From that day onwards lord shiv was very detached from her. He stopped showing but didn't treat her as his wife. Sati became very sad upon the changed behavior of god Shiv but she still was there with Shiv on his Mount Kailash, the home of Shiv.

Later on the father of Mata Sati, Daksha Prajapati organized a Yagna (a grand function for offering for Bhagwan). But he didn't invite Shiv and Sati. Because once he had a difference of opinion from Shiv in the Court of Bhagwan Bramha. Sati was so sad about this. But she wanted to attend the Yagna, so she went there to attend it, Shiv didn't like this idea yet he had to permit it.

When Sati reached the Venue, she saw her own father Daskha Prajapati ignoring her presence. Daksha didn't even offer Prasad in the name of God Shiv. Sati was so sad seeing all this. She felt very humiliated and went into grief. She decided to end her life and jumped in the Yagna fire and immolated herself under the sadness and grief.

Shiv heard the news and became extremely furious. He started the Tandav dance of destruction. He wiped out the entire Kingdom of the Daksh. People feared the entire universe was going to be destroyed by the Tandav dance of Shiv. Vishnu wanted to calm down the Shiv, so he cut down the Sati body into 12 pieces and it fell on Earth. It is said that wherever those body parts fell, people started praying it as Shaktipeetha (source of Female Power).

God Shiv was now alone so he went back to Himalaya. Started living as a sage and yogi. Goddess Shakti was born again as the daughter of lord Himalaya. So she started praying for Shiv's attention. It was so hard for her to gain Shiv's attention but she was very motivated and different sages persuaded Shiv.

So at last Goddess Parvati was able to persuade Shiv and lured him away from asceticism. She asked Shiv to marry her. The marriage took place in the Month of Falgun a day before Amavasya. This day has since been celebrated as the day of Mahashivratri.

This story tells us the importance of Shiva and Shakti. There is no existence of humans of anything without Shiva and Shakti as a unity. To realize the existence of a living being both male and female energy is needed. Shiv is the seed and Shakti is the force that acts as a platform for the seed to grow and emerge as an entity. This entire Universe was created when these two forces Shiv and Shakti combined. For the birth of a child, we need a male and a female.

For the purpose of creation of this Universe Shiv will always need Shakti (the force or power) and even for the preservation of this universe Shiv needs Shakti. And so for the purpose of destruction, as well Shiv needs Shakti.

The concept of Shiv Shakti focuses on this divine theory that feminine energy doesn't mean rejection of masculine energy. Adi shankaracharya the Famous sage with the title Jagadguru in his Shakta hymn's very first line says "If Shiv is united with Shakti, he is able to create. If he is not, he is incapable even of stirring."

Even in Bhartiya Tantra, it is said that the entire universe is created, penetrated, and sustained by two great fundamental forces. Which are in perfect sync and harmony with one another as an indestructible union. This Universal force is referred to as "Shiv and Shakti."

Shiv and Shakti are the same to be the two different parts of the same coin. According to the imagination as perceived in Indian references, Shiv Shakti is referred to as the form where lord Shankara shows his feminine side and also masculine side. In different paintings, we may find depictions of the left side as feminine and the right side as masculine energy.

It is said that only when Shiv and Shakti come together and combine the act of movement and creation take place. It is said that Shiv and Shakti exist in each one of us as our masculine and feminine side. Every human has a feminine and masculine side. Some of the traits are understood as feminine traits such as kindness love and care. Some of the traits as understood as male traits and we may find that both traits as present in every human.

Even scientists when discovered the Milky Way's earliest building blocks named it Shiv and Shakti. According to the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy, they discovered they have discovered the earliest building blocks of the Milky Way and named them Shiva and Shakti. According to them two different galaxies merged together 12 13 million years ago and have given birth to a new universe and contributed to its growth. They have found this through the European space agency Gaia satellite and SDSS survey.

According to the philosophical belief in a human being both Shiv and Shakti form is alive and it's in existence. All humans have masculine aspects and feminine aspects. It is greatly understood that our feminine side rests in our left side and Masculine aspects on our right side. According to some different scientific aspects our brain produces hormones and masculine traits are produced in our right side of the brain and feminine in our left side of the brain. If the left side of the

brain is more active a person will have feminine sets of behavior and if the right side of the brain is more active the masculine traits of behavior can be observed in every human being irrespective of their male or female sexual physical origin. So we hold this energy within us and when united and a balance is created we feel satisfied and achieve balance and joy.

Shiva Energy

According to the philosophy, the Shiva energy brings in consciousness and lets us understand our inner strength. According to the principle of Shaivism, Shiva is always in union with its devine half Shakti. Shiva's energy is very peaceful and stable. It is very steadfast and strong. So Shiv represents the unmoved effect of pain or suffering that this external world inflicts on us. Shiva's energy is very centered grounded and compassionate. Though the shiva energy is already in us. We need to meditate in order to invoke and realize the awakened quality of Shiva in our consciousness. The masculine Shiva energy is aware of every single thing that comes in its way of creation. According to the belief freedom, awareness, direction and purpose are the four masculine traits.

Shakti Energy

The energy of Shakti is very pure and beautiful. It's very fluid and can shift its shape or take any fluid form. Shakti's form of energy is very fluid, flowing, and flexible. Shakti energy is raw energy that is very expressive and sensual. Shiva energy is formless whereas Shakti energy can be seen in everything that can be manifested. Everything that came into existence is a form of Shakti energy. Both Shiva and Shakti's energy is equal and opposite energy. One cannot be imagined without the other energy. We can integrate this energy with our inner consciousness which can transform us.

Shiva and Shakti are known as the half male and half female form of god popularly known as the Ardhanarishwara. It's a very beautiful imagination of Shiva Shakti's energy as a single entity. It represents the masculine and feminine aspects of our self, procures our wholeness, and addresses our loneliness. The less a trait in us, the more lonely we feel. The imagination of Shiva and Shakti conveys balance and joy. Shiva Shakti is the sacred masculine and feminine consciousness that lies within us and throughout this entire Universe.

According to Hindu shastras, Ardhanarishwara is the form of a half-male half-female Hindu Deity God which is the combination of two Gods Shiv and Parvati (Shakti). The name is a Sanskrit word that combines three words. Ardh means half, Nari means female and Ishwar means god. That

means half female God or God who is half-woman. This deity God symbolizes both the nature of the deity that created this universe.

The deity represents both the male and female consciousness of humans and talks about the coexistence of both traits in order to sustain this universe and take part in its creation in order to maintain the balance.

According to the data published by the American Astronomical Society on 21 March 2024. They studied two new substructures in the orbit using Gaia-released data from astrometry and spectroscopy. They were identified as two confined highly contrasted overdensities in the distribution of bright and metal-poor stars. They were named Shiv and Shakti.

Both the star has stellar masses and are distributed on programe orbits inside the solar circle in the Galaxy. Both structures have an orbit space distribution that points towards an accreted origin. Though their abundance pattern is as such from data of APOGEE that they are conventionally attributed to a situ Population.

Though these diagnostics may seem to be highly contradictory they could be used as a tool to interpret the abundance versus distribution of their member star merely as a sign of rapid enrichment. This may bring to our attention and create two different scenarios. Maybe these prograde substructures were created by some form of resonant orbital trapping of the field stars by the rotating bar, an explanation given by Dillamore Et Al. Or else Shiva and Shakti were the protogalactic fragments that

formed stars rapidly and coalesced early. Similar to the constituents of the poor old heart of the Milky Way, a little deeper in the Galactic potential and still discernible in the orbit space.

According to the research and different data as observed some conclusions were drawn. And it was understood that even for the creation of galaxies and universe two different forces were required. So these were named after Shiv and Shakti's concept of Hinduism.

Every human has both a masculine and a feminine side, one of which predominates in almost everyone. Which predominates in a person is usually but not always identical with that individual’s secondary sex characteristics, and some people so identify with their bodies that they behave as if they are only the one and not at all the other.

Both men and women possess attributes of both Shiva and Shakti but in different measures. The chief characteristic of Shakti is that She is kinetic, She moves. And this is the chief characteristic of a woman, that she is changeable. Shiva’s chief characteristic is His immobility. Likewise, a man is, or should be, firm. Often, he is unyielding. Men are creatures of ambition, and women are creatures of emotion. Women have to learn firmness; men have to learn emotion.

The feminine (in a woman or a man) wants intimacy, connection, and pleasure; the masculine (in a man or a woman) wants stability, and solitude. The masculine grows in solitude and with other men; the feminine grows in pleasure and with other women. A man who is healthily established deep within himself draws a woman into her feminine just by his deepness; a woman who loves wholesomely propels a man into his masculine.

A man’s ability to be with his own feminine gives him the capacity to be comfortable with and to relate healthily with the feminine in others; a woman’s ability to be with her own masculine gives her the capacity to be comfortable with and to relate healthily with the masculine in others. Too often today a woman tries to compete with a man in masculinity without really knowing her own masculinity; this can cause her to become hard, dry, and angry. Too often today a man comes to a woman seeking only pleasure without really knowing his own feminine; a woman will resist opening to a man if she feels that he can’t handle his own feminine.

Relationships between two people who don’t know their own personal masculine and feminine tend to break down when one partner starts to think and say that the other is wrong and shows contempt, or a lack of empathy. Two people who value their relationship and wish to cultivate and nourish it must develop and maintain mutual empathy and open communication.

Shiva is the passive masculine power and Shakti is the active feminine power. They always go hand in hand. Together they

are the power of the entire Cosmos And of the life. One cannot exist without the other. Take, for example, Rain as the static power, and waterfalls. The Earth is the active power that grows. So without the rain the ground cannot grow, rain just falling is useless. The Sun is the passive power, gives heat, and the World absorbs and has life, the active power. Man is the passive power donates the sperm, woman the active power makes a life. So the two powers together make the universe.

Shakti is the nature. She creates life within herself. She is the bearer of the potential creative seed. Shiva is the consciousness. His conscious observation regenerates the seed to actualize into the multiplicity of the Universe. Shakti is Observation and Shiva is the Observer. Shakti is the energy and Shiva is the awareness. When Shiva embraces her, she transforms into Devi or Goddess who like a Mother provides life with everything that is required to sustain it. Nature is domesticated. She provides food for life to sustain. She is coy and caring. She is Goddess Parvati signifying Culture. Her hairs are tied and she wears a nose ring to mark her domestication. She has also turned Shiva into Shankara, the householder.

To piece together the history of our galaxy, astronomers usually classify stars into two groups — those birthed within our galaxy and outsiders that were sucked in by our galaxy’s immense tidal forces. The two populations normally have distinguishable chemical compositions. In-situ stars like those populating our galaxy’s disk are rich in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, including iron. These elements forge as a result of the stars being “nicely pressure cooked” in our galaxy’s dense environment, says Malhan.

In contrast, ex-situ stars such as those sprinkled in the relatively sparse halo don’t have large heavy-metal reservoirs. Stars in both Shiva and Shakti are in “very unique orbits” around the Milky Way that is different from remnant stars from other galaxy mergers, says Khyati Malhan of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Germany, who led the discovery. Despite being leftovers of two separate galaxies, the chemical makeup of both stellar groups is quite similar — a tell-tale sign that their respective progenitor galaxies were equally dense, says Malhan.

From a scientific perspective, the concepts of Shiva and Shakti can be understood in relation to mass, energy, and the Big Bang theory. Shiva, representing the unmanifested consciousness, corresponds to the potential energy that resides within the singularity before the Big Bang. Shakti, as the creative energy, represents the explosive release of energy during the Big Bang, leading to the formation of galaxies, stars, and all physical matter.

Intriguingly, scientific theories align with the profound concepts embodied by Shiva and Shakti. Modern science posits that everything emerges from nothingness and returns to nothingness. The foundation of existence and the fundamental quality of the cosmos is vast emptiness, often referred to as Shiva. The galaxies and cosmic phenomena

are mere specks within the expanse of empty space, which is the womb from which all creation is born and to which all creation ultimately returns.

Shiva is taken as the Soul and Shakti is taken as the mind of this soul and together they form our consciousness. It's a concept in hinduism philosophy that represents the interplay between the masculine and feminine energy in our universe. The theory symbolizes the coming together of Shiva and Shakti for a creation. This union is essential for the manifestation, sustenance, and dissolution of everything in our universe and beyond our universe.

Interestingly the photographs shared publicly by S. Payne Wardenaar and K. Malhan of MPIA show Shiva stars in green color and Shakti stars in Pink. Similarly, psychologists identify females and related emotions with pink color and males with blue which is more identical to green color. Our brain has both sides. In males, hormones testosterone levels are higher, and in females, levels of Progesterone are more. But even in males levels of Progesterone can be higher and can give a male body some traits of female behavior and likewise, females may have more testosterone levels that can make them behave more like a male. Testosterone levels help us gain more confidence and keep us active. Female hormones help us boost our emotional response and

bring in our human sides alive. So we all have both the hormones active inside us that let us have both the phenomenon of males and females in our body, action and at the mental level. These hormones guide us and are important for us to form a series of traits that decide how we live our lives.

So we must understand that Shiva and Shakti are not the adversaries but they are actually complimentary to one another and they complete themselves coming together. No existence in this universe can be imagined in the absence of either of them. Shiva and Shakti both are needed for our human existence as we need a male and a female to create new offspring. We need energy identical to Shiva and Shakti to exist. Every human being has both the traits of Shiva the masculine traits and the Shakti as in feminine traits. These traits complement one another is become the very reason for our existence.

References:-

1. Shiv Puran.

2. Mahabharat.

3. Ramayan.

4. Articles published in Astrophysical Journal by Malhan and Hans Walter Rix.

5. Max Planck University research.

6. Articles of Bob Benjamin, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater on the structure of the Milky Way.

Article by



Sonali Shukla
Younginker
Student
Banaras, Uttar Pradesh