“उद्धरेदात्मनाऽऽत्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत्।”
Uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ nātmānam avasādayet — Bhagavad Gītā 6.5
“Let one uplift oneself by one’s own Self; let not the Self be degraded.”
The Dance of Shiva and Shakti
All creation is the ceaseless interplay of Śiva and Śakti — consciousness and energy, stillness and movement, observer and observed. Without Śakti, there is no life; without Śiva, there is no awareness. In every experience, this cosmic dance unfolds — in the pulse of the heart, the rhythm of thought, the rising of the sun. Spiritual realization is not the rejection of either aspect, but the union of both. When the inner dualities reconcile — masculine and feminine, logic and intuition, effort and surrender — the seeker enters the state of Ardhanārīśvara, the whole being in which opposites dissolve into harmony. This is yoga in its highest sense — not postures, but union.
10/23/20251 min read
All of existence is born from the eternal dance of Śiva and Śakti — the inseparable principles of consciousness and energy. Śiva is pure awareness, the still and silent witness beyond time. Śakti is the dynamic force of life — the movement, the rhythm, the pulse that animates creation. Without Śakti, Śiva remains unmanifest; without Śiva, Śakti has no direction. Together they form the whole — the seen and the unseen, the being and the becoming.
In every moment of life, this cosmic interplay continues — in the heartbeat and the breath, in the sunrise and the fall of night, in thought and in silence. Every experience we have is an expression of their union. When we see the world through this understanding, nothing appears ordinary. Even the simplest act — a smile, a word, a breath — becomes a revelation of the Divine.
Spiritual realization is not the denial of the world nor an escape from it. It is the recognition that everything — pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, masculine and feminine — are complementary forces of one divine reality. When these apparent opposites reconcile within, the seeker awakens to the state of Ardhanārīśvara — the embodiment of perfect balance, where Śiva and Śakti exist as one.
Ardhanārīśvara is not merely a deity — it is a symbol of inner completeness. It reminds us that wholeness does not come from rejecting any part of ourselves, but from embracing both strength and tenderness, reason and intuition, effort and surrender.
This is Yoga in its highest essence — not merely physical postures, but the profound union of consciousness and energy, the merging of the finite with the infinite. To live in this awareness is to dance with the universe itself — gracefully, consciously, and in harmony with the eternal rhythm of creation.