For many, ‘Shiva’ evokes a highly coloured calendar art image.
While the image is not without its own charm, reducing this sophisticated conception of the divine to a single rudimentary form is tragic.
Shiva should not be named because to name him is to curtail him. And yet, his innumerable names point to the many indescribable mysteries of creation.
Of his varied manifestations, Kala is particularly significant, not just for metaphysical reasons, but scientific ones.
Both science and mysticism are fuelled by the same spirit of wonder. At one time, it seemed like they ran on parallel tracks. But today, the growing convergences could mean a tremendous step ahead for humanity.
Scientists have recently recorded gravitational waves on the fabric of space-time—a confirmation of the Einsteinian idea that our experience of the physical world is relative.
This also confirms a time-honoured yogic insight that sees time as the fundamental basis of creation.
Time is always ticking away, but cannot be pinned down. It is this powerful, ineffable dimension that holds the entire universe together. We called this dimension Kala.
One aspect of time is the result of the cyclical movement of physical reality: a single rotation of Earth being a day, a revolution being a year, etcetera.
From the atomic to the cosmic, everything physical is in cyclical motion. But time is, fundamentally, Kala, which also implies darkness or space.
Only in time, space is possible; so, space is seen as a consequence of time. Because of space, form is possible.
Because of form, all physical reality becomes possible. And so, the yogic tradition has the same word for time and space: Kala.
Even gravity is one small byproduct of time. It is a force that manages the time-space relationship, and allows Kala to find expression.
When the dark no-thingness of Kala reverberates and takes form, physical existence begins. Indian culture realised that when we speak of a dimension beyond logical perception, it is best to speak dialectically. So, we personified a complex existential reality and called it ‘Shiva’.
This is not religion; this is mysticism, a subjective science. Shi-va literally means ‘that which is not’ or no-thing.
The hyphen is important. It is in the lap of vast no-thingness that creation has happened. Over 99 percent of the atom and the cosmos is, in fact, emptiness—simply no-thing.
This dark aspect of Shiva was personified as Kala Bhairava—a dimension potent with life, uncannily similar to the dark energy of modern-day physics.
Kala Bhairava is a vibrant state of darkness, but when he becomes absolutely still, he turns into Mahakala, the ultimate time machine.
The Mahakala Temple in Ujjain celebrates its Simhastha Kumbha Mela this year. An incredibly consecrated space, this powerful manifestation is definitely not for the faint-hearted.
Raw and forceful, it is available for all those seeking ultimate dissolution—the annihilation of time as we know it.
The spiritual process anywhere in the world is always about transcending the physical, because form is subject to cycles.
Kala Bhairava is seen, therefore, as the Destroyer of Ignorance: he who shatters the compulsive cycles of birth and death, being and non-being.
When the boundaries of time and space are transcended, and the limitations of form shattered, the seeker wakes up to the truth that the mystics of the world have always known: that access to the beyond is to be found in the here and now.
When the last vestige of ignorance is annihilated, all that remains is Mahakala, the ultimate nature of existence, infinite darkness, an eternity.
Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and a bestselling author. He was conferred the Padma Vibhushan in 2017. Isha.sadhguru.org
Kala Bhairava is a vibrant state of darkness, but when he becomes absolutely still, he turns into Mahakala.