Adi Shankaracharya goes to his teacher and is asked to introduce himself, and he says, “Cidānandarūpaḥ Śivoham Śivoham — I am pure blissful consciousness; I am Shiv, I am Shiv." My real identity is not at all related to the body. The great teacher is very clearly telling us that Shiv is the one who has nothing bodily about himself. But because we are bodily, our ego does not allow us to admit that there can be anything beyond who we are. And that’s also the cause of all human suffering.
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Questioner: Acharya Ji, Juliana Hathovic has been listening to you for quite some years now and she has been very regular with what happens in the socio-spiritual domain in India.
She went through the recent statements by the Vice-chancellor of JNU on Shiv's caste. She just sent me a query on the same, what is really meant by Shiv’s caste? Can you please throw some light on it?
Acharya Prashant: Juliana, of course, she has been a student of Vedanta for long. Till a few years back, she used to attend the Upanishad sessions all the way from Europe. So I'm glad that she has made this inquiry into Shiv's caste. Shiv’s caste, (laughter)
So how do we proceed? It's a pretty unusual topic for me to deal with. Would you google for Nirvana Shatakam by Acharya Shankar and give it to me?
