Death and Regeneration

Learn about Shiva, the Hindu personification of destruction and rebirth, evolution and progress.

It is said that man is Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; man creates, preserves and destroys because he is made in the image of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

Death is connected with Shiva. On the 25th of February, the Hindu world celebrates the festival of Maha Shiva Ratri, the Vigil Night of Shiva. Shiva is called Mahadeva, the Great God. While Vishnu preserves what Brahma creates, Shiva has the power to destroy what the one creates and the other preserves. Therefore, some believe Shiva to be the superior deity, and others dread him as the god of destruction and death. It is believed that when the time of Pralaya, of the dissolution of the universe, approaches, it is his power which disintegrates the earth and the cosmos.

The anthropomorphizing of metaphysical principles is responsible for much confusion of thought and for the prevalence of wrong beliefs. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are not three persons or three separate gods, but rather three aspects of the One Reality; they are three impersonal and universal forces which are the very basis of the manifestation of Life. Brahma is the creative aspect of Life; Vishnu, the preserving aspect; and Shiva, the destroying aspect.

© "The Theosophical Movement" (February, 1998) published by Theosophy Company (India) Private Limited, Theosophy Hall, 40 New Marine Lines, Mumbai 400 020. Reprinted with permission.

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