Sadhguru on Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain

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Sadhguru on Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain

Sadhguru, could you tell us something about Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain and the Mahakala form of Shiva?

The temple, Mahakala Temple, Mahakala Isfera Temple in Ujjain. This year is very important because it is their Kumbh Mela. This is the twelfth cycle of the twelve-year cycles, the solar cycles. So a very significant year for them. It’s called a visimihasta kumbh . This time.

This temple was built by a king named Chandrasena. Chandrasena was attacked. He’s a great devotee of Shiva. He was attacked by people who wanted to destroy this culture. Ujjain had become a city of devotees and those who sought knowledge. It was almost like the second kashi of India where knowledge, learning, transmission of spiritual knowledge was the main hub of the town. That is what ruled the town and people came to this town for that purpose. It is not on any trading route. So the town grew. It was called Avantika at that time. This town Avantika grew big only as a knowledge hub, as a spiritual hub.

So there were people who don’t like it. There are always people who don’t like it. So they wanted to destroy the city and they attacked. I won’t go into the entire story. So, he prayed to Shiva. And Shiva appeared in the form of Mahakala and absolved the enemies in a certain way and relieved him of this trouble so that he could continue spreading what he was doing.

Kala. The word kala means 2 things. Kala means time. Kala also means darkness. How can one word mean time and darkness? When we say time, in your present experience, time means cycles. Cycles means physical nature. From atomic to cosmic. From a single atom to the largest cosmos.

Everything is in cyclical motion. If there are no cycles, there is no possibility of physicality. Planet turns around once. We call this a day. The moon goes around the planet. We call it a month. The planet goes around the sun. We call it a year. Like this it goes. Our understanding of time, our experience of time right now is in cycles. Cycles of sleep and wakefulness. Eating, digestion, hunger. Like this, there are many cycles. It is only through circular movement of things do you know time. If there was no circular motion, if there are no cycles in existence, if there is no physicality, you wouldn’t grasp time.

That is time manifesting through physical existence. This physical existence is happening in the lap of a larger non-existence which, in English language, they may call it space. Here we call it kala or darkness. Why we are calling space as darkness is if you want to see light you need some opaque object, an opaque object which stops light. You can see my hand only because it is stopping light. You cannot see the air because it’s not stopping light. Nor can you see the light in the air because it is not stopping light. Anything that does not stop light will not be seen by you. It will be darkness to you.

Either you must see the source of light or you must see an object which stops light otherwise you will have no experience of light. So you see the sun and the moon. Sun is the source of light for us. Moon is reflecting the light. In between, is all darkness but light is passing isn’t it? You don’t see it. But it is definitely passing otherwise how would it fall on the moon? So the space is referred to as kala or darkness because space is dark. Only if there is something it reflects light and you experience light. If there is something then it is space. So space is referred to as darkness.

Between time and space why are they mentioned with one word? Because they are one in the sense right now … Let’s say this is point A and this is point B. These 2 points are possible only because there is time. It’s not because there is a distance there is time. Because there is time, there is possibility of distance or space. If there is no time, there can only be one point and one point cannot happen in physical existence. There can only be polarities. Things can exist only as polarities. So if there is no time, if there was no time, there would be no space. There would be no 2 different things. Nothing could exist. Even nothing could exist. Not just something. Even nothing could exist so the basis, the fundamental basis of existence is known as kala or the time. Only because there is time there is room for space. Otherwise there would be no space.

As right now, your experience of time is only in cyclical movements. Your experience of time is only an expression of physical nature because physicality exists only because of cyclical movements. The entire aspiration, the spiritual aspiration is to attain liberation, means you want to transcend the ways of physical. Or, in other words, you want to transcend the cyclical nature of the existence. Transcending the cyclical nature of existence means transcending repetitive process of life. Transcending repetitive processes of life means transcending the compulsiveness of who you are.

From compulsion to consciousness, from compulsiveness to consciousness. This is the journey. So if you want to move from compulsiveness to consciousness, the limited experience of time that you have right now, which is an expression of the cyclical movement of physical existence, if you experience time without the basis of physicality, or without the limitations of physicality, then we call that time as Mahakala.

Mahakala is the lamp upon which creation is a smattering of things. Huge galaxies, but still they’re just small specks of creation. The rest is all empty space. 99% or 99 and more percent of an atom is emptiness. That is Mahakala. Though the atom is in cyclical movements, over 99% is emptiness. In the larger cosmos, over 99% is emptiness. Huge galaxies in cyclical movements, but over 99% is emptiness. So it is in the lap of Mahakala that creation happens. If you are involved with limited specks of creation, then you experience time as a cyclical movement.

This dimension is referred to as samsara which means cyclical movements. If you transcend this, then we call this virargu . This means you have become transparent. If you are transparent, you don’t stop light. If you don’t stop light, this means you have become free from the compulsive nature of life, of the cyclical movement life. If you become free from the cyclical movement of life, then we say you are in mukti, or absolute liberation. Those who are aspiring for mukti, those who are seeking absolute liberation, for them, this dimension that we are referring to as Mahakala becomes of paramount importance.

The Mahakala Temple, the linga that is consecrated there, is a phenomenal nature. It will shake you from the root of you existence. It is really an incredible consecration. It is just done for this purpose, but in some way it dissolves you. There is a dimension of mahakala in the dhyanalinga, but it is cloaked so that only those who seek, for them it will be available. There it is a little more very certain flagrance to the way he finds expression. There is a certain forcefulness, raw forcefulness.

One must be ready to go into this temple properly because it’s of a tremendous power and it is not for the faint-hearted. It shakes you from inside. Because that is the nature of mahakala that in the very presence of what this mahakala rupa is, is when you go there everything is gone. Everything is burned into ashes. That means you becomes free from the physical. That means it pushes you, it propels you towards your ultimate liberation.

You want to do the gently. We have everything here. You want to do it in a “boom” way. You really want to be pushed hard and you are not faint-hearted, then Mahakala Temple is a phenomenal process and this April/May is very significant. We are planning to transport a few thousand people from Damalatu so that something is shaken.