k of life. By turning to the myths of deities such as Visnu and Siva, and by understanding the symbolic meaning of those stories, man finds paths toward enlightenment and out of the "every-dayness" of his material existence (Eck, 1985; Murthy, 1998).
Siva is a many-faced and faceted manifestation of the attributeless supreme deity. According to Fisher (1999), in older systems, Siva along with Brahma (Creation) and Visnu (Preserver) represented the three major aspects of the godhead. Siva is "the unmanifest; he is creator, preserver, destroyer, personal Lord, friend, primal Soul" (Fisher, 1999, p. 107). Siva is often depicted dancing above the body of a demon that he has killed, demonstrating his capacity to reconcile light and darkness, good and evil, creation and destruction, rest and activity in the eternal dance of life (Singh, 1990).
Siva is also depicted in mythology as the god of Yogis, seen sitting in isolation on Mount Kailas wearing only a tiger skin. In this depiction, Siva wears a snake around his neck, signifying his conquest of the ego (Fisher, 1999). Interestingly, in the stories depicting Siva in this manner, it is his masculine nature that is emphasized while simultaneously Siva is seen as isolated and distant from his wife, Parvati. The message is clear: though married, Siva is an ascetic who is committed to chastity and therefore not participating in many of the sexual pleasures of the material world (Eck, 1985).
In one story, Siva swallows a poison that threatens the whole world with darkness, neutralizing the poison by the power of his meditation. Symbolically, this myth emphasizes the capacity of Siva to
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