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Bronze Meditating Yogi Shiva Statue 21"

Bronze Meditating Yogi Shiva Statue 21"
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Materials: South Indian Bronze

Total Height Including Base: 21 inches

Base Width & Depth: 16 x 13.5 inches

Weight: 82 pounds

Item # 9bc24

  • Description
  • About Shiva
  • Care

  • "Forgive me Oh, Shiva
    My three great sins!
    I came on a pilgrimage to Kashi forgetting that, you are omnipresent.
    In thinking about you I forgot that, You are beyond thought.
    In praying to You I forgot that, You are beyond words."
    ~Adi Shankara

    Lord Shiva, the god of the yogis, is portrayed in this beautiful sculpture in quiet meditation.  His arms are held out resting on his knees with his thumb and forefingers connected in a pose of meditation.  His posture is perfect, upright and straight.  He wears only a loin cloth and he has a string of rudraksha beads around his neck.  His hair is tied up into a bun on top of his head.  A departure from his typical dread locked hair.  In his hair is a crescent moon representing the cyclical nature of the universe. The waxing and waning of the moon symbolizes the cycle through which creation evolves.  Shiva is wearing two yali earrings.  Yalis are beasts made from a combination of many animals. 

    This sculpture was commissioned by Lotus Sculpture in 2008.  After our first visit to the northern towns of the Ganges we were influenced by the sculptures we saw and wanted a meditating Shiva like the one on the Ganges in Rishikesh.  We asked this of our artists and they came back with this sublime sculpture.

    Lost Wax Method:      This sculpture is a one of a kind, lost wax method bronze statue hand made by the artists of South India.  The sculpture pictured is the only sculpture Lotus Sculpture has like this in our store.  When you order this piece you will receive this exact sculpture.  It is truly one of a kind as there is only one made exactly like this!  Each bronze is hand made by a group of bronze artists whose families have been crafting bronze sculptures for centuries with the art being passed on by each generation.  The hand crafted bronzes statues have an incredible amount of detail which many other mass produced, brass Hindu statues lack.  Lost Wax South Indian bronze statues are the only sculptures used by Hindu temples throughout India and the world.  Click here to learn more about the Lost Wax Method.

  • Shiva the Destroyer (Sanskrit: Auspicious One), or Siva, is one of the main Deities of Hinduism, worshipped as the paramount lord by the Saivite sects of India. Shiva is one of the most complex gods of India, embodying seemingly contradictory qualities. He is the destroyer and the restorer, the great ascetic and the symbol of sensuality, the benevolent herdsman of souls and the wrathful avenger.
    Shiva was originally known as Rudra, a minor deity addressed only three times in the Rig Veda.  He gained importance after absorbing some of the characteristics of an earlier fertility god and became Shiva, part of the trinity, or trimurti, with Vishnu and Brahma.
    Shiva wears a snake coiled around his upper arms and neck symbolizing the power he has over the most deadly of creatures. Snakes are also used to symbolize the Hindu dogma of reincarnation. Their natural process of molting or shedding their skin is symbolic of the human soul's transmigration of bodies from one life to another.
    Shiva's female consort and wife is Parvati; because of his generosity and reverence towards Parvati, Shiva is considered an ideal role model for a husband. The divine couple together with their sons - the six-headed Skanda and the elephant headed Ganesh - reside on Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas. 
    His guardian is Nandi (the white bull), whose statue can often be seen watching over the main shrine.  The bull is said to embody sexual energy, fertility.  Riding on its back, Shiva is in control of these impulses.
    He often holds a trident, which represents the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu.  It is also said to represent the threefold qualities of nature: creation, preservation and destruction, although preservation is usually attributed to Vishnu.
    As the destroyer, Shiva is dark and terrible, encircled with serpents and a crown of skulls.
    Shiva often wears sacred Rudaksha beads, perhaps a reference to his earlier name Rudra.
    The crescent moon Shiva wears on his crown, besides being a symbol of Kama the goddess of nightly love, also represents the bull, Nandi, a fertility symbol.
    Shiva holds a skull that represents samsara, the cycle of life, death and rebirth.  Samsara is a central belief in Hinduism.  Shiva himself also represents this complete cycle because he is Mahakala, the Lord of Time, destroying and creating all things.
    Shiva is represented in a variety of forms.  One such form is as a lingam.  The ovoid shape is a representation of the absolute perfection of Lord Shiva - if that which is beyond form had to be given form, the lingam would be the closest form to the mystical experience of the absolute perfection of Shiva.   Shiva is often pictured in a pacific mood with his consort Parvati, as the cosmic dancer Nataraja, as a naked ascetic, as a mendicant beggar, as a yogi, and as the androgynous union of Shiva and Parvati in one body (Ardhanarisvara).
    Another example of Shiva's apparent synthesis of male and female attributes is seen in his earrings.  He wears one earring in the style of a man and the other as a female.
    Shiva's third eye is a symbol of higher consciousness.  It is also a weapon he uses to destroy his enemies by emitting a fire missile which has the power to incinerate the three worlds.  He can also kill all the gods and other creatures during the periodic destruction of the universe.  Shiva's third eye first appeared when Parvati, his wife, playfully covered his other two eyes, so Shiva opened his third eye emitting his destructive missile endangering the three worlds.

     

    Click here to learn more about Shiva

  • The piece can be used both indoors and outdoors. Dust the piece regularly. If you would like the piece to shine use a cotton cloth with some coconut oil or other natural oil to wipe down the statue.