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It then proceeded to decorate the altar with leaves from a holy tree. In preparation it sprayed the altar with water from its trunk, scattering the gems. After the snake had worshipped, an elephant, fresh from its purifying bath in the nearby river, came to worship. The spiritual power of the Self, called Kundalini, the latent electricity of Consciousness, is hidden in the dark recesses of the unconscious like a snake hidden deep within the earth. Serpents are one of India’s most visible symbols of the spiritual power of the Self. Liberation, the death of ego upon the rediscovery of the Self, is the final stage of life just as setting is the sun’s last act before it disappears over the horizon.Ī cobra worshipped Lord Shiva by offering rare gems, pearls and rubies that it brought from Nagaland, a mythical place where Nagas (serpents) dwell. The deity Kalahastishwara (the lord of Kalahasti) faces west and symbolizes liberation. freedom from limitation conferred by Self knowledge. At Kalahasti the Goddess Gnanaprasoonamba (the giver of knowledge or the mother of all knowledge) represents the ‘wealth’ i.e. Shiva in the form of Dakshinamoorthy represents desire, in this case the desire for liberation, although he more commonly is said to represent the feeling of wealth (dakshina) that comes when you know who you really are. They are represented by four deities facing in the four cardinal directions. In the temple at Kalahasti these four universal motivations, which may take any worldly form, are, according to temple literature, converted into spiritual impulses. The Vedas posit four ends for which human beings strive in their search for happiness: pleasure (kama), security or wealth (artha), duty (dharma) and freedom (moksha).
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So, the small river on whose banks the Kalahasthi temple is situated is meant to remind us of the Ganges and the wealth of spiritual associations it conjures. The holiest city in India, Benaras, is built on a stretch of the Ganges that flows northward, the idea being that when the mind turns back toward its source, the God/Self, it realizes its innate divinity. The symbolic use of direction culminates in the idea of building temples at the point on a river where its meandering points it back to its source. East often represents the dawning of wisdom, the sun being another common Self symbol. The God Dakshinamurthy whose name means ‘the one facing south’ and whose idol (murthy) is installed in the Kalahasti Temple, sits in the North and faces south. The idiom to “head south’ means to go downhill, to decay. Obviously context should be taken into account when divining the meaning of a symbol, but north, for example, is said to be the abode of the Self because from the immortal ‘northern’ position the Self looks out on the ‘southern’ world of time and death.
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Even the cardinal directions have assumed symbolic significance in Pauranic culture.