The Worship of Shiva Part 1

Swami Vivekananda attended Paris Congress in Aug-Sep 1900 as a delegate. Even though Paris Congress was merely a session of the scholars who were involved with several topic and themes like history of religion, it was important for two reasons - 1) It formed a platform for the scholars to come together and exchange ideas on a host of  issues and topics relevant for the modern age, possibly for the first time 2) It had a good visibility among all the leading intellectuals and formed one of the basis for further academic research of the later period into various aspects of the religious history. However it was neither as critical nor as important as the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, nor it enjoyed visibility. In his words in a letter written to Udbodhan - Congress of the History of Religions recently sat for several days together. At the Congress, there was no room allowed for the discussions on the doctrines and spiritual views of any religion; its purpose was only to inquire into the historic evolution of the different forms of established faiths, and along with it other accompanying facts that are incidental to it. Accordingly, the representation of the various missionary sects of different religions and their beliefs was entirely left out of account in this Congress. However there were still some subtle attempts in undermining Indian thoughts and establishing the superiority of the Semitic sects, esp. that of Catholic Christianity, France being primarily a Catholic country. There were Indologists present but with all due respects, their analysis and studies on Hinduism were proved to be superficial. The session, esp. the topic on the history of the religions was conducted in French and that should have dissuaded any Indian from participating in it and providing material support or presenting academic papers. Swamiji being indisposed through hard work of the past few years and owing to lack of time because of his engagement in planting the seeds and developing the Vedanta work in California and some other areas of America, could not present a paper but was actively present in the discussions. He had learned French back in 1892-93 from Shankar Pandurang of Junagad and then continuously worked on it through out his sojourn in Americas, esp. during 1899-1900, through his close associations with Jule Bois and Pere Hyacinthe and Madam Calve and Sarah Bernhardt. So he understood and could speak as well as write almost fluently in French. So he had no difficulties in understanding the academic discussions that took place and also in providing his own comments. He was warmly received by the scholars on Indic studies and the Orientalists who were already familiar with his name and fame. One of them, a German Indologist Gustav Oppert read a paper on Shalagram Shila. In a typical Western fashion he traced the history of Shalagram Shila worship to the worship of the female regenerative principle. He also associated the Shiva Linga with phallic worship - emblem of the male regenerative part. Thus the Hindu worship of these sacred emblems was relegated to a context of sex and sensuality while in reality they were almost entirely on the opposite side, i.e. standing for renunciation of the sensuality and sense pleasures. But Vivekananda repudiated strongly the view points and put forward that the Shiva Linga worship was basically originated from the famous hymn in praise of Yupa Stambha in Atharva Veda Samhita. In Linga Purana the same is depicted in a story form. Swamiji said that explanation of both Shiva Linga and Shalagram on the basis of phallic worship was a hideous and monstrous idea of the European scholars without any basis. He said, One of the names of the Buddhist Stupas (memorial topes) is Dhâtu-garbha, that is, "metal-wombed". Within the Dhatu-garbha, in small cases made of stone, shaped like the present Shalagrama, used to be preserved the ashes, bones, and other remains of the distinguished Buddhist Bhikshus, along with gold, silver, and other metals. The Shalagrama-Shilas are natural stones resembling in form these artificially-cut stone-cases of the Buddhist Dhatu-garbha, and thus being first worshipped by the Buddhists, gradually got into Vaishnavism, like many other forms of Buddhistic worship that found their way into Hinduism. On the banks of the Narmadâ and in Nepal, the Buddhistic influence lasted longer than in other parts of India; and the remarkable coincidence that the Narmadeshvara Shiva-Linga, found on the banks of the Narmadâ and hence so called, and the Shalagrama-Shilas of Nepal are given preference to by the Hindus to those found elsewhere in India is a fact that ought to be considered with respect to this point of contention.