(‘the friendly one’, ‘gracious one’) This deity can be traced back to the Indus Valley cultures which preceded the Aryans in north India. Very early on, Śiva began to take on characteristics of the Vedic → Rudra,...

the Lord of creatures and of the creative cosmic power symbolized by the , and of the spiritual mastery of reality epitomized by yoga. His is also representative of the cosmic pillar, the axis mundi. In Brahminic theology he is the third member of the...

(Hebrew: “seven”) The period of mourning that lasts for seven days after the funeral. During this time, close relatives of the deceased remain at home, where daily prayer services are held and where visitors are received to offer...

(‘great god’) an appellation of Śiva frequently used by his devotees, especially when thinking of him as the transcendent Absolute. His consort Pārvatī is then called Mahādevī and is referred to in this context as...

Shiva (IAST: Śiva; Hindi, िशव Shiv , Bengali শিব, Shib, Telugu: శివుడు ) is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. Often called "the Destroyer", Shiva is one of the Trimurti, along with Brahma the Creator and Vishnu the...

First, the sad stuff: The only doctor's order my dad, Basil, ever disobeyed was that final request to load him up with yet another plastic bag of white blood cells. He had leukemia; this after living through a quintuple heart bypass, trigeminal neuralgia, and...

Lord Shiva comes alive in the streets and temples of India during the annual spring festival known to Hindus as "Shivaratri" or "Night of Shiva." This ancient festival, commemorating Lord Shiva's creation of the world by dancing it into existence, also celebrates...

At the risk of blowing a good thing—you know, like when The New York Times runs a feature on a restaurant or neighborhood, thereby increasing its visibility and making it difficult for the rest of us to enjoy a good meal or even live in...

At the risk of blowing a good thing—you know, like when The New York Times runs a feature on a restaurant or neighborhood, thereby increasing its visibility and making it difficult for the rest of us to enjoy a good meal or even live in...

In the essay below, Taber argues that understanding Sankara's theory as transformative philosophy is an essential element in making his notions of the self and self-consciousness "intelligible" to western minds.

In the following essay, Rambachan analyzes Sankara's belief in sruti as the essential and true source of knowledge of brahman.

Below, Isayeva surveys the various hagiographies of Sankara's life, outlines the three categories of his writings, and discusses the difficulty scholars have encountered in authenticating some of his work.