WHAT DO SHIVA AND JESUS HAVE IN COMMON?
What do Shiva and Jesus have in common?
Our goal: We do not wish to fuel dualism or religious disputes, but simply to present the similarities between Lord Shiva and Lord Jesus, address the importance of ethics and spiritual qualities, and discuss how spiritual experiences occur.
The Existence of Shiva and Jesus
Some people claim that Shiva and Jesus never existed, that both are merely mythological characters. Generally, these people do not understand what Mythology truly is.
Mythology is a set of myths (sacred and symbolic stories) of a people or culture that explain the origin of the world, humanity, natural phenomena, customs, and moral values. It functions as a belief system to understand reality and the human condition before the rise of rational thought.
Mythology consists of parables and illustrations. For example: for didactic purposes, Jesus told the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man; he himself stated that it was an illustration and not a factual reality. Unfortunately, there are people who do not know how to interpret a speech or a text and believe this parable of Jesus is a literal fact. There are also dishonest people who know the parable is not literal but teach it as such to those with little education or difficulty in discernment.
Stories such as Shiva cutting off Ganesha's head and replacing it with an elephant's head are also illustrations, parables, and didactic symbolisms to teach ethical, moral, and religious concepts. Unfortunately, some misunderstand them, and others teach them incorrectly on purpose.
Regarding the historical existence of Jesus and Shiva, we need to understand a few things:
Shiva is the oldest God on Earth, and Shaivism is the oldest religion on Earth, dating back to the period of natural shamanism—ancestral peoples who understood nature as part of their own existence, culture, and spirituality.
Shiva is present in various religions: Advaita Vedanta Hinduism, Vaishnavism, some sects of Buddhism, and several sects of Shaivism. In all these religions, Shiva was placed as a secondary mythological being. Only in Saiva Siddhanta is Shiva the Almighty and Personal God. Therefore, it is obvious that we will not find a historical Shiva who worked in a sandal factory in Egypt 5,000 years ago, nor a laboratory that has a piece of Shiva's skin in a test tube; that is ridiculous.
On the other hand, the historical existence of Jesus is an academic consensus, and that is final; it does not matter what speculators or ill-intentioned people say. The past is instructional, but we need to know about the existence of Shiva and Jesus in the present time, because we are not living in the cave ages, in ancient Egypt, or in first-century Galilee.
Spiritual Beings
We also need to understand that if Shiva and Jesus truly exist, they are spiritual persons, not human beings (rational animals, as Science defines them). They are also not extraterrestrials or ghosts.
What occurs is simple: they exist in a different vibrational pattern from our material pattern and are not under the same physical conditions as animals (irrational or rational, as Science classifies them).
How can a person be certain that Shiva and Jesus exist as spiritual beings? By evolving spiritually, operating our Consciousness in a higher vibrational pattern. This evolution does not involve religions and books:
It involves developing a pattern of unconditional ethics;
Developing spiritual qualities such as Love, humility, compassion, forgiveness, and other virtues;
Totally detaching from the ego;
Maintaining a healthy routine of meditation and contemplation;
Seeking a close relationship with the Higher Power, the Source of Life, God, or what would be the best definition: Daddy.
Similarities between Shiva and Jesus
Shiva and Jesus are so similar that some people believe they are the same person revealed in different ways: Shiva (God revealing Himself to the East) and Jesus (God revealing Himself to the West). However, they are not the same person.
Shiva and Jesus are similar in the following points: they are pure, innocent, the very essence of compassion, entirely peaceful, entirely benevolent, and extremely forgiving. They are humility personified, strictly ethical, the embodiment of gentleness, and they possess no ego. Everything they do is for the benefit of others and never for themselves. They are infinitely sweet and understanding.
Both Shiva and Jesus have a profound love and attachment to the poor, to people with disabilities, to those considered "crazy," to the unjustly excluded and marginalized, to those considered "ugly," to the humble in body and soul, to vulnerable women, to the undesirable, and to those suffering from diseases repulsive to society (such as our brothers and sisters suffering from leprosy/Hansen's disease). In other words: to any and every kind of person who possesses virtues but is rejected by the world.
Spiritual Qualities
These similarities between Shiva and Jesus are the qualities a person must have to be spiritually evolved and reach higher vibrational patterns.
Only from this evolutionary phase can a person truly BEGIN to understand a SMALL FRACTION of the spiritual dimension and achieve, through GRACE (not through one's own effort), a communion with Shiva or Jesus, and thus conclude that both they and other spiritual beings of goodness truly exist.
Spiritual Experiences
Spiritual experiences occur between the Father and His son or daughter in private, just the two together.
According to the teachings of Jesus, one should worship God alone in their room. Furthermore, we can practice meditation and contemplation isolated in nature, or on a mountain, as Jesus did, leaving us this sweet example of solitude in union with the Father.
Moreover, in spirit and truth, one must love the Father above all things and love all other lives as oneself. This love for the Father must be unconditional, without expecting anything in return and without abandoning this love when difficulties arise. One loves the Father simply by recognizing that His personality is full of wonderful qualities and because He is EVERYTHING that one loves and seeks most in life.
No one has spiritual experiences at any open door on the corner; the Divine Presence is not like a drink served in glasses at a tavern table, regardless of the names people give to such places.
If you seek a spiritual experience, it does not matter if you are the most intelligent person on the planet, the best scientist, or if you have the greatest faith in the universe. If you do not abandon the ego, and if you are not entirely humble and ethical, possessing sublime human qualities, you will not have access to a higher spiritual reality. Pure and true spiritual experiences are only possible for pure and true souls.
The Name of God
We must mention that Jesus never taught his disciples to call God by a proper name like Jehovah, Allah, Shiva, Krishna, Joseph, or John.
Jesus taught that God should be called Father, Daddy—in Aramaic: Abba Father. The Tamils teach us that we have a Father, Daddy, which in Tamil is Appa Pati (the Abba Father of Jesus), and that Daddy is this person whom we often call Shiva (The Benevolent One).
Shiva is not a proper name; it is a quality of Appa Pati / Abba Father (Daddy); Shiva means Auspicious, Benevolent.
Differences between Shiva and Jesus
The differences between Shiva and Jesus are: Shiva is Pati (The Father), and Jesus is the Son of the Father or Son of Pati, the Son of God, as he himself repeatedly insisted.
Jesus teaches the way to the Father, but it is the Father who liberates people from the ego, ignorance, and illusion.
This is why billions of people have read about Jesus hundreds of times, many claim to love and follow him, but rarely does someone manage to be like him.
Jesus said: “No one comes to me unless the Father draws him.” We observe from this statement that no one truly understands his personality, his way of being and thinking, or his teachings—and understands the need to be like him—if they are dominated by ego, false beliefs, and ideologies, and shackled by mundane, earthly illusions of any origin.
Only the Father can liberate a person from all these limitations and help them to be in His image and likeness. Only the Father can help a person follow the faithful example of Jesus, who became one of us, showing the type of person and Consciousness we should be.
When we reach the evolutionary stage of being in the image and likeness of the Father, He grants us the eternal Grace of the soul's liberation and the sublime communion with Love. God is Love (Anbe Sivam)!
Learn more about Saiva Siddhanta Philosophy by clicking here:
Sivayoga
