How Shivling can teach us Atomic Science

Do you know why we worship the Shivling & what it exactly means? Here’s the tea.

First, you need to understand that “ling” does not mean penis, the Sanskrit word for that is Shishinam. Ling means mark so Shiv Ling means the most simplified symbol of God.

The concept was first described in the Vedas, then fully fleshed out in the Shiv Purana. The story goes that there was a debate between Bhrama & Vishnu, as to who is better. So a pillar-like fire comes up in between & tells them whoever finds the pillar’s end first will win.

Long story short, Bhrama ends up cheating & getting cursed by Lord Shiva that he’ll never be prayed to anywhere in the world, which is why you don’t see Bhrama temples a lot except in Pushkar. This pillar is what we see as the Shivling today.

One of the many interesting explanations of its structure is that Shivling represents the three universal energies, with Bhrama Bhaga at the bottom beneath the surface (carrying an electron’s negative charge), the Vishnu Bhaga (carrying the proton’s positive charge) & Shiva Bhaga (carrying the neutral creative & destructive nucleus-like energy of Shiva).

The disk around the pillar or egg which symbolizes the Bhramanda i.e. universe, is Shakti, or Energy, Shiva’s wife, further divided into Renuka (Renu meaning molecule), Rudrani & Sarp (Snake).

It’s said that to keep Shiva from being a raging fire of destruction, we offer him bel patta, milk or water, which are all cooling elements.

So basically, Shiva being smaller than a subatomic particle & at the same bigger than the cosmos, could teach us physics & nuclear energy - and this is the ancient scientific knowledge our rishis once had.