ardhanArIshvara (ambaa-l)

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Mon, 6 Jan 2003, Shrinivas Gadkari wrote:

> I would like to share what I feel about this episode.
>
> When hiranyagarbha, conceived the idea of a human body,
> he became a man. When he started contemplating on how the
> corresponding female form should be, shri rudra helped
> him by assuming the ardhanArI form. The point to be made
> here is: male and female forms of species are dual of one
> another. Define one and you have already defined the
> other. shri rudra, who very well understood this duality,
> showed hiranyagarbha that since he has come up with the
> human male form, this is what the counterpart should be like.
>

The puranas point out that the present srishti is the second one.  The
first was manasika (mental) and gave birth to Rshis like Narada,
Sanatkumars etc.  But they went off to do tapa and did not have progeny.
Then Brahmaji did the second srshti by maithuna (the union of male and
female.) This did result in progeny.  Brahmajis ahamkara was in assuming
the creation due to duality was a "success" while that based on
non-duality was a failure.  Through the Ardhanarishwara rupa, Shiva
Bhagavan showed Him that even the duality of male and female has only
non-duality as its basis.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/