When I was a kid, there was a temple of Lord Shiva near my house with a Shiva lingam installed in it. I used to go there intermittently. At that time, I did not know its meaning. I just knew that it was an idol of Lord Shiva, who is a very powerful god and is capable of destroying the whole world if he opens his third eye. Actually, I was scared of him. In my adolescence also, I did not know much about it, but I had a faint idea what it could be because the word linga is used mainly to denote a sexual organ or gender in India, but I never talked about it with anyone.
When I grew young, one day I heard my mom whispering to someone about it being the sexual organs of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. It was the first time I came to know about one of the meanings of the Shiva lingam. At that time, I wondered how we could worship sexual organs even if they are of divine personalities, but then I forgot about it and continued to be a devotee, as it did not make a difference.
Then in the book “The Da Vinci Code,” I read that the Shiva lingam is a symbolic representation of feminine and masculine principles, and so is the Star of David of Jews and other things in different cultures. From then, my perception of looking toward it changed. Then when the popularity and availability of the Internet increased in India and I started exploring Hinduism online as it is my favorite topic, I found that there were many misconceptions about Hinduism among Hindus, and most of them were not aware of real Hinduism, including me. E.g., until then, I did not know that Brahman is the supreme God in Hinduism. I just knew that the Hindu trinity is the most powerful god.
Therefore, I started a website named www.hinduismfacts.org to spread the word about Hinduism and also to learn new things about it. I learned many new things about it in due course, but I did not pay much attention to the Shiva lingam at that time. Also, I was working at that time and was quite busy. Therefore, it was difficult to dedicate a lot of time to this topic. In the year 2017, due to some health issues and other problems, I had to leave my job and got abundant time but was still involved in some other things. In the year 2020, I discovered that my real passion was studying Hinduism, and I was wasting my time on the things that I did not like much. Therefore, I decided to spend most of my time studying Hinduism in-depth but did not know where to start because Hinduism is so vast that even a lifetime is insufficient.
It was when I came across some arguments on Quora about the Shiva lingam, and I decided that my first topic for research would be the Shiva lingam. Also, I am a devotee of Lord Shiva, so it was a good place to start. Initially, I thought it would be easy to find out what it really is, but as I went on collecting more information about it, I understood that I was wrong. I had never thought of the conclusion that I arrived.
This book is actually a part of my quest that I am sharing with you. I know some of you would agree with my perspective and some would not, but I have tried my best to give answers that would satisfy the queries of people with different perspectives.
- Mr. Rahul Dudhane