Why Hindus Worship The Shiv Ling
By Kartik Mohan
http://www.swordoftruth.com/swordoftruth/articles/readersvoice/readersvoice1.html

A guy named Philip asked me on this forum to explain why it is that Hindus worship the Shiv Ling. I am very glad that he did , not only because it gives me an opportunity to explain, but to expose the truth of what so called "Christian ethics" are all about. Christianity, after all, is hardly a religion - it has always been exactly what it started out as, a political agenda in spiritual guise. Its ends are the imperialistic subjugation of non-Christians, and to achieve them it has relied consistently on the propogation of lies and the falsification of history- not to mention the manipulation of our very notions of what is right and wrong. Unfortunately, Christianity is so widely followed in the world today that these manipulations have even permeated the ethics of non-Christians. Brother Hindus, we had better beware of this, because in surrendering to it we are undermining the worldwide spiritual legacy of an ancient civilised era of which we are the last surviving inheritors. 

First, to answer the question. Philip asks, why is it that we worship the Shiv Ling- isn't it Shiva's penis? My reply to that is yes, and that is exactly the reason. The Shiv Ling, depicted in consummate union with the Yoni ( vulva ) of Shakti, is representative of the most wonderful and miraculous feature of life itself. What distinguishes life from non-life, after all? Above all else, the ability to reproduce its own kind. If we are to revere the concept that life itself is sacred- which even the Christians claim to believe- why is the most characteristic feature of life, the act of progenition, any less sacred? It is not only sex we are talking about here. It is the consummation of the vast and different energies of the male and female universal prerogative, of which the Shiv Ling in union is a symbol- celebrating the fact that humankind has two sexes, each with its unique attributes and qualities, and when they come together, they produce a synergy, they create MORE life, they become more than the sum of their individual parts. Many ancient civilisations recognized the wonder of this concept- including the Chinese, who represent it somewhat more abstractly in the symbol of Yin and Yang. It is a tribute to these ancient and wise people that they were able to perceive true miracles, true wonderment, in the very features of life which surround us in our everyday existence. They did not need to have some man walk upon water to see a miracle, nor see crippled people cured instantaneously- or, worse yet, read about it in some book and call their blind adherence to such beliefs "faith".

Now. My friend Philip was actually horrified, appalled, revolted by the very idea that we heathens could worship something such as a penis. The REALLY interesting question is, WHY? 

 Have you ever really thought about the assumptions that cause us to think of sex as something "unclean"? Have you ever wondered why a joke about sex, in the English language, is referred to as a "dirty" joke? Why is a picture of the human body in its natural state thought of as a "dirty" picture? Why do thousands of teenagers, non Christian and Christian alike, go through entirely unnecessary agonies of guilt , bound by the belief that masturbation is a sin? Why does such painful ignorance manifest itself generation after generation, all over the world? The answer is, because we have been conditioned to think of it that way- and here is the pervasiveness of manipulative Christian "ethics" I talked about earlier. When Christians start schools, it is not because they want to teach us, it is because they want to teach us their lies. And the lie that sex is evil, sex is unclean, sex is inherently in and of itself immoral - the lie that is brainwashed into us in spite of our knowing better since childhood- is perhaps Christianity's oldest lie of all. And like all of its lies, it was meant, at the time of its invention, to serve a political agenda in a spiritual guise.

The Bible never says, in so many words, that sex is a sin. In Genesis, though, it contends that Adam and Eve were cast out from the Garden of Eden for committing between them the "Original Sin"- and then shortly thereafter they had a son. Later, in the New Testament, it is one of the cardinal principles of Christianity that "Virgin Mary" was more virtuous than any other human being, because she was "without sin"- i.e., she was allegedly still a "virgin" when she gave birth to the alleged "Jesus". Add to this the superstition that the entire Christian world associates with sex, the way in which Puritanism reviles sex, the sheer guilt that Christianity associates with anything viscerally pleasurable ( because "Jesus died on the cross for their sins" )- and the conclusion is obvious. The Bible may not ever have spelled out that sex is a sin, but most of the Christian world, including my dear Philip, are hidebound to view it that way. So that today, life is sacred but the creation of life is a sin. A thirteen year old girl who becomes pregnant because she is too young to know any better, is reviled by Christians as having committed the Original Sin. Yet, if she has an abortion rather than bring a child she cannot care for into the world, they will revile her doubly as a murderer. This is the hypocrisy of which Christianity consists to its very core. And it all exists for a reason, as I shall proceed to explain.

More than 4000 years ago, civilised human beings all over the world were essentially polytheistic, essentially tolerant people. The centre of their godhood, though, their primary deity, in almost all cases was not male. She was the Mother Goddess, in one or another of her manifestations. She was the Bounteous Earth, the giver of fertility and nurturance and sustenance to all her children without asking anything in return, the source of all life when it is created and the receiver of all things back into her womb when they die. She was an extremely natural deity to worship- when people had no hangups about procreation being part of the wonder of life. She had female attributes, the wife, the mother, the giver of unconditional love, the bearer of and caretaker of children. Her fertility was what allowed the circle of life to go on, and it was only natural that humans all around the world worship this. And they did.

We in India knew the Mother Goddess - there are representations of her dating back to the Indus Valley Civilisation. Hindus know her as Shakti, and in her manifestations as Durga / Kali / Parvati. In the civilisation of Persia, they knew her as Ishtar. In Babylonia and Egypt, as Astarte. In ancient Greece, as Hecate or Demeter. In Rome, as Vesta. Even in the New World, despite no evidence of any contact between Eurasian and American civilisations of that era- there are temples and representations of a Mother Goddess- it is obvious there would be, because she is the natural object for humanity to worship.

Not, however, for a tribe of desert barbarians 4000 years ago called the Israelites. They had a different kind of god altogether. A Male God, with a Capital G. They called him Yahweh, and he is the direct antecedent of the " Lord Our God " of the Christians, and of Allah of the Muslims. He was not about fertility and caring at all. He was a wrathful, vengeful, jealous , angry god, full of violent hatred and intolerance. He spoke out of a "burning bush" and instructed Moses , saying " I Am That I Am "- if this is unbelievable to you, don't read the Bible, watch The Ten Commandments by Cecil B DeMille, it really is more entertaining. He told Moses, among other things, that his followers must not worship False Gods, that HE was the One True God, and then asked Moses to go with his staff and smite another people who believed in false gods, the Egyptians, with the full force of His power. And there began the first of the imperialism that Christianity embodies today. A belief, stronger than any other, that the nonbeliever is a lesser human being than a Christian, because he is going to hell, and if he cannot be "saved" by being converted to Christianity, he should be killed before he spreads his views any further. A political agenda truly unprecedented. Go forth and multiply, and kill whatever stands in your way, because I Am That I Am and I am on Your Side.

 The Jews never went about converting people with the rabid fervour of Christians, but they had a political agenda, certainly. To that end, it was necessary to revile and discredit other peoples, the neighbouring civilisations of Egypt and Babylon , and part of this was achieved by discrediting their principal deity- who was, of course, the Mother Goddess. How was this achieved? Through effecting a remarkable paradigm shift. If men, physically stronger, could be made to despise and subjugate women rather than treat them as equals- that would put an end to the worship of any Goddess . If fertility, and procreation itself, could be defamed as not miraculous but sinful things- though this went against all the natural instincts human beings had followed so far- if people could be made to feel unclean for worshipping these things, they would reject the Mother Goddess, because she stood for fertility and the miracle of life. Hence, sex is the Original Sin. Hence, the human body in its natural state is dirty. Hence, Philip is horrified when we worship the act of procreation.

How was this paradigm shift effected? Very slowly, but with the bitter doggedness of true fanatics. It began with the murder of Queen Jezebel as described in the Old Testament. It began with the razing of the Temple to Astarte in Jerusalem , and the building of a Temple to Yahweh by King David in its place. It carried on for thousands of years, hand in glove with more overt political actions, such as the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine I to Christianity in AD ca. 300. It was at this time that what we know as the Bible today, was compiled and written- with a very hardcore political agenda already in place laying its foundations. The fall of Rome followed, and was followed by the Dark Ages, which were followed by the Crusades, which were followed by Colonialism and the Inquisition. The faith that had sprung from the Israelites spread like a metastizing cancer over the face of the earth. And it holds most of the earth in its poisonous grasp today. And still, the denigration of women in society that took hold as a result of this agenda continues. Till early this century, Christian countries did not give women the right to vote. Even now, in Islamic countries- where a monotheistic , intolerant God descended from Yahweh holds sway in his most perverse caricature- well, we know how they treat their women.

 Brothers, we all knew the Mother Goddess once. We Hindus still know her as Shakti today. We are the only ones who are so lucky as to have survived. Persia, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Americas- all fell to the brutal viciousness of the Christian onslaught...and later, parts of Asia to the Islamic onslaught. They were tolerant, civilised people, just as we are today. That was why they could be wiped out and replaced by Christians. But we have survived. We are heirs to the true legacy of humanism, and we must never forget this. We must recognize the lies of the Christians for what they are, we must recognize their activities of conversion for the imperialist evil they represent, and we must fight these things with all our efforts to the bitter end. One day, Christianity's mighty edifice will fall under the weight of its own contradictions . Till then, we must bear the torch of the legacy of pagan humanism that will ultimately prevail.

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