Lord Shiva the Mountain

by James Muth

Shiva is the destroyer god in the Hindu religion. He is a bit like a reboot for your computer after a virus takes over. He will save a few good things from it, but otherwise, everything is gone. His wife is Pavarti who always appears to the right but technically, Shiva’s left. Along with being Shiva’s wife, Pavarti is also his left hand (wo)man. Shiva is viewed as big, strong, and mighty and overlooking everything, so it only makes sense that he would be incarnated as a mountain over looking the city of Thiruvannamalai. Our group was fortunate enough to get to climb on top of this mountain that is considered Lord Shiva and watch the sunrise.

            After waking up at 5:15 am and waiting for 45 minutes for our guide to arrive, the group set off to go climb Lord Shiva. We were told the day before that we would have to make the climb barefoot due to respect of the incarnation of the god we were climbing on. After walking on a back path for a bit, we reached the entrance for the mountain. I thought that there would be a noticeable but not paved path and I was mostly correct. The path was made of cobblestones that jutted out at weird angles. Luckily we did not have to take our shoes off, the reason we didn’t is unknown, but I am very glad we kept our shoes on. Then we started running up the mountain. When I look back at this moment, I picture myself as a mountain goat on a steep mountain, jumping from one rock to another.  After a solid half an hour of running up Lord Shiva, we reached a clearing with a small bluff. We stopped there, and sat down to watch the sunrise.

The temple at the center of the city seemed like everything was built around it. Thiruvannamalai is a relatively small city in relation to some of the cities in India, but the city and the roads and houses, seemed to expand infinitely. That moment reminded me of the minaret on one of the mosques we climbed up in Cairo. I really wish we had had an opportunity to climb up to a high point in Delhi to see what the city was like. There seemed to be a connection with nature at that moment. Everyone was quiet and it felt like we were sitting on a giant. We all felt linked to the importance of this mountain and the connection and role it plays in such a practiced religion. But sadly, all good things must come to an end.  We left the bluff with open minds, happy hearts and lots of beautiful pictures. After walking a ways, we stopped at a locked gate. We were going to go inside some caves but they were all locked up. We waited there for a bit to watch the monkeys playing in the trees.

Brenda almost got her bag stolen by a monkey. Luckily, Joshua had a banana to give to them so they would leave her alone. We started our descent at that point; everyone was ready for it.

            After walking down a path for a while, we reached a small house. Inside was the guy who takes care of Lord Shiva. (Well technically he takes care of the mountain and the mountain is an incarnation of Lord Shiva. So logically, he takes care of Lord Shiva.) We got into his small house and got blessed by him. Let me say that again, the guy who takes care of the main god in the Hindu religion… blessed us.  I am blown away by this experience. I am at a loss of words; I’m … well, at a loss of words. But sadly, again, all good things must come to an end. I never thought that a priest of that importance would have time for tourists. Anyway, we went even further and got to another little house. Inside, there was a small entryway that had a small but still cozy “living room”. There were a few small decorations in that room, but the real impressive room was the cave. Behind a small arch, there was a very tiny cave, painted white but it had several large statues of Hindu gods. The group separated into smaller groups to go into the cave. When it was my group’s turn, we all went into the cave to get ash and kunkumin of our foreheads. Kunkumin is red and usually gets put in between the eyebrows and the ash is white and gets put on the forehead in three horizontal lines. That is the symbol that you will sometimes see representing Shiva. Along with the ash and kunkumin, the priest gave me (and just me) a necklace with a walnut on it. I’m not sure what it means but it was given to the only kid so it could mean good luck in the future. After that it was time to leave, so everyone hustled to get back to the bus and back to the hotel.

            I believe that many parts of this trip would be very different without the religious point of view. We are here in India to study religion, so it only makes sense if we have experiences that are formatted like this one. Learning about a specific religion makes me want to take a sample of it or just try it out for a while. I feel that religious figures such as Buddha, Shiva and God are all as powerful and mighty as each other. I want to have a sample of each religion and just try it out, whether it is for five minutes or five years. I still think sticking to one religion for childhood is probably smart. When I am almost an adult and working on finding myself, I would like to revisit these religions to see if I have a different perspective towards them. Exposure to these religions has made my path of faith a little rockier but in the end I will come to a resolution, whether it is with a new religion or one that I am familiar with.