The Shiva Purana: Scripture, Philosophy, Practice, and the Recognition That Underlies All Three
The Shiva Purana is one of the great sacred texts of the Hindu tradition - but it is far more than mythology.
In this monumental and philosophically rigorous study, Dr Bhaskar Bora offers a comprehensive examination of the Shiva Purana as scripture, metaphysics, theology, sacred geography, and living practice. Moving far beyond devotional summaries or symbolic reductionism, this work treats the text as what it claims to be: a sustained argument about the nature of reality, consciousness, liberation, and the divine.
Across twenty-eight chapters and extensive appendices, this volume explores:
- The seven Samhitas and their theological architecture
- The doctrine of Sadashiva as Para-Brahman
- The philosophical meaning of the Linga beyond reductive interpretations
- The thirty-six Tattvas and Shaiva cosmology
- The Panchakshara mantra as vibrational metaphysics
- The theology of grace (Anugraha) and the four grades of liberation
- The relationship between Shaivism and Advaita Vedanta
- Kashmir Shaivism and the hard problem of consciousness
- Sacred geography: Jyotirlingas, Kashi, and the Shaktipeethas
- Shaiva yoga, initiation (Diksha), and the role of the Guru
- Comparative engagement with Western philosophy, Jungian psychology, and the numinous
Written for scholars, serious practitioners, philosophers of religion, and readers seeking depth rather than simplification, this book restores the Shiva Purana to its rightful place as a living theological and philosophical text.
It does not reduce Shiva to symbolism.
It does not romanticize mythology.
It does not bypass intellectual rigor.
Instead, it demonstrates that the Shiva Purana offers one of the most sophisticated accounts of consciousness and liberation in the history of human thought.
For those willing to engage it seriously, the text becomes not merely ancient literature - but a philosophical companion in the modern search for reality.
Om Namah Shivaya.
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