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Friday, November 25, 2016

Svayambhu (Shiva) and the Three Friends

Svayambhu (Shiva) and the Three Friends

“My grandfather used to say that he didn’t know where he came from, from whom he was born, or how he stayed alive when he was a child.”
“My grandmother said, she once saw him being nursed by a big tigress near the woods that are under water now.”
“I saw him the other day. He was sitting by the river, looking at the rocks.”
“What do you mean he was looking at rocks? Was he trying to catch a fish?”
“No, he was just silently sitting there starring at the river rocks and watch the water go by. The next day my sister came to my house with her husband to pick up the yaks and they said, they also saw him sitting there. He must have been sitting there for almost 4 days.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Should we ask him?”
“Sure, if you can find him. He is like a ghost. He hardly interacts with anyone accept a few people who have looked after him long ago. He is very silent. If he walks by and stands next to you, you wouldn’t even know.”
“Yes, my father was telling his friends that they want to put a gourd filled with pine nuts and small rocks on his arms and ankles so that whenever he passes by or is near the village, everyone can hear him…ugly beast.”
“Hardly! Have you seen those young girls ogling after him? They find him irresistible. They have been saying that they gaze in his eyes and fall in love with him.”
“But he doesn’t even care! Imagine if I knew a girl wanted me.... what a waste!”

The boys were sharing the stories about Svayambhu to each other on a thunderous and rainy night by the fire in a cave next to their village. The fire crackled as wet twigs gave way to the cinders and meatless bones of wild boar that the boys had caught that afternoon. They had put the bones into the fire so they can make arrows out of them later.



“What does he eat? I have never seen him eat anything.”
“I don’t know. My mother gave him some food the other day. He bowed to her and ate the food. But he might as well not have eaten. He hardly eats. I don’t know how he survives without food.”
“Don’t forget the rain! And snow and heat. It’s almost as if he is not bothered by any weather at all.”
“I bet you he was a great hunter when he was young.”
“What do you mean, ‘young’. He is our age”, one of the boys said.
“Ha ha ha”. The rest of the group started laughing. Finally, they told him that he was hundreds of years old.
“yes, he is a legend. And yet no one knows anything about him.”
“Ok then. I will find out about him. Who wants to join me?” The one boy who thought Svaymbhu was his age said. Two other boys replied, they will join him.
For next few months and years, the three boys followed Svaymbhu whenever they could. They saw him rarely-only when he was passing by their village. They observed that yes, no amount of weather bothered him. He had no fear. His eyes sparkled as of a hunter but he rarely hunted. He roamed the Himalayan mountains and valleys. He had three homes-so to speak. One was on a tall peak which they couldn’t climb. Another one was by the river bank where he had made a little hut from animal hides, branches and leaves. Yet the third dwelling he often frequented was the meadow he was born in. The meadow and the surrounding trees were not underwater as one of their friends said earlier-rather they became an island in a thicket of woods, the melting waters from the glaciers, and rocks.
He spent most of his time gazing out in the distance. He hardly slept. His face and expressions seemed very content. His hair was matted thick. He was at ease with his surroundings. He seemed intimately connected with them. You would hardly notice him unless you really looked for him.
The more they followed him and observed him, they also realized that he was fearless. Animals were plenty back then-it was a boom time after the end of last ice age. Human beings had to constantly fend them off and lived together in small groups in villages and protect themselves with spears, arrows and torches. Svaymbhu seemed to be unaffected by the animals-big or small. This really impressed the three friends.
One day, the posse saw him sitting on a rock, with eyes half-closed. A big black snake hissed and crawled up on his arm. “Look out!” one of the friends couldn’t help it.
Svaymbhu didn’t reply. He didn’t blink an eye. The snake made a knot on his arm and rested on this shoulder next to his neck.


“Wow!” the bunch exclaimed. 
The three friends followed him for the next few days without returning home. They had decided to imitate their distant friend who seemed to be radiant with smile. That’s when they knew that he had known all along that he was being followed. But again, they could never tell. “what a mysterious and powerful being”, the leader of the group said. “let’s do what he does from now on.”

The three friends eventually returned to their old habit of following him after they had become old men-each a grandfather now. Their bodies wouldn’t keep up but they saw how Svaymbhu still looked the same. Rather he was more radiant than ever. His eyes were like diamonds. His skin looked as if the gold of morning Sun had blended with the mud of the virgin Earth and was dipped in the brightest and whitest cottony wool. He wore his signature tigress hide and another fur around his upper body. Over the course of their lifetime, people who had shunned him had created terrible stories about him-some true, some untrue, some conjured up simply because they hated him. Some people had great respect for him like the three old friends. The three friends never approached him directly, nor they talked to him. They simply observed him with great curiosity. They would gather and sit outside the village next to a tree during a certain time of the month knowing that Svayambhu will be passing by. They would bow and Svayambhu would return their bow with the most gracious bow and press on. The three friends learned to meditate and every time they meditated, they would see Svayambhu in their inner visions. This prompted them to respect him even more.
One day, Svaymbhu came through the village on his usual pilgrimage that spanned all of the known Himalaya. He stopped and waived at the three friends asking them to come closer. The three men smiled as if they had never smiled before and approached him with deep reverence. Svaymbhu stood almost 14-15 feet tall which was the average height of the human beings then. To the leader of the three friends, he seemed a lot taller, as tall as the mountain peak where he stayed during mid-winter in snow.
Svaymbhu flashed his infectious smile with pearly white teeth as if they were jewels beaming out his inner splendor. He opened his palm and gave each friend a Rudraksh seed. 
Svaymbhu said “my dear friends- thank you for looking after me all these years. It was because of you three that I could be worry free. You are my friends and protectors. Please ask me anything you want. I will give it to you if I can.” 
“What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? Who are you? Who are we?”
Svaymbhu smiled, and replied, “We are our experiences. We exist. I am you. You are everything.” Then, he turned around and started walking on to his meadow island, next to the village.

The three had never let go of the seeds Svaymbhu had given them.
One friend planted the seed in his backyard and watered it every day.
Another friend make a necklace out of it and wore it till he passed away.
The third friend made a headband and put it on his granddaughter’s head.


A few months later, the three old men fell sick. As the three friends laid on their deathbeds, each had an identical vision of Svaymbhu. They saw the following:
They saw him holding a staff. The staff had two round gourds with tiny animal bones inside. The staff soon turned into a three-pointed trident (trishul) which emanated lightening. Then, they saw him thumping both of his feet on the ground he was standing on which was soon followed by a rhythmic dance. He shook his trident left and right in a precise and calculated motion. Soon with every alternating thump, a thunderous sound of thousand drums manifested, and each alternating shake of his trident turned into awesome white light while the other alternating shakes seemed to engulf the white light completely into a total vacuum and abysmal void. The white light seemed to be woven together by the alternating rhythm of creation and dissolution into planets, stars, and galaxies. The galaxies then paved way to superclusters, and on and on it went till the white light with void as its counterpart panned into hundreds of universes. While beholding this vision, and knowing that they had to return and reincarnate in due time to experience all of it as their life moments on Earth, the three men let out their last breaths and passed away peacefully.