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They hold that true Lingâyats are not liable to be defiled by births or deaths, that they cannot be injured by sorcery and that when they die their souls do not transmigrate but go straight to Śiva. No prayers for the dead are needed. Though trustworthy details about the rise of the Lingâyats are scarce, we can trace their spiritual ancestry.
Thus, one of these shrines was called by the artist, Thomas Moran, the Temple of Set; three others are dedicated respectively to Siva, Vishnu, and Vulcan; while on the apex of a mighty altar, still unnamed, a twisted rock-formation, several hundred feet in height, suggests a flame, eternally preserved by unseen hands, ascending to an unknown god.
Narkom," he inquired, "were the Siva stones found to have been stolen at the same time that the body was discovered, or was their loss learned of later?" "Oh, at the very instant the body was discovered, my dear chap.
By a fortunate coincidence, the annual festival of the Bromo is celebrated to-day, when Siva, the Third Person of the Hindu Triad, is propitiated by a living sacrifice.
This may have given the hint of the second Triad, which distributed among the three gods the attributes or Creation, Destruction, and Renovation. Of these Brahma, the creator, ceased soon to be popular, and the worship of Siva and Vishnu as Krishna remain as the popular religion of India. . . .. "But all the efforts of Brahmanism could not arrest the natural development of the system.
"You saw how I spent the White Night of Siva," and he made his gesture of reverence. "Will you gaze for an hour on the crystal?" "For what purpose?" "I do not know what may be revealed to you," he answered. "That is in the keeping of the Holy One. Perhaps nothing; perhaps much. Will you make the trial?" His eyes were distended with excitement, his lips were trembling with eagerness.
Hearing these words of Partha desiring the boon he sought, god Siva smilingly said unto Vasudeva and Arjuna, "Welcome to you, ye foremost of men! I know the wish cherished by you, and the business for which you have come here. I will give you what you wish. There is a celestial lake full of Amrita, not far from this place, ye slayers of foes!
And then accompanied by all the attendants of Siva, those two heroes set out for that celestial lake which possessed hundreds of heavenly wonders, that sacred lake, capable of granting every object, which the god, having the bull for his mark, had indicated to them. And having reached that lake, bright as the disc of the sun, Arjuna and Achyuta beheld within its waters a terrible snake.
On one side of the precinct a clever butcher-priest severs with one stroke the heads of goats which are brought for sacrifice to the thirsty deity. As in Madura, so in Benares, the great god of the Hindu is Siva. But the character of the worship which is rendered to him and to others of his cult is far from ennobling when not actually revolting.
In a recess in the center is a gigantic figure of Siva in his character as The Destroyer. His face is turned to the east and wears a stern, commanding expression. His head-dress is elaborate and crowned by a tiara beautifully carved. In one hand he holds a citron and in the other the head of a cobra, which is twisted around his arm and is reaching towards his face.
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