The Shiva Trilogy By Amish

When I was a child a lot of mythological shows were aired on television like Shri Krishna, Mahabharat, Ramayan etc. Since then I have been fascinated by Krishna. I believed in his philosophies, admire him as a teacher & politician and worship him not just as a God but as my saviour in my hour of need. While reading 'Mujhe Chand Chahiye', I felt thrilled when the protagonist 'Varsha' showed a similar devotion to my Lord.

One of the shows which graced the Indian television during the same time period was 'Om Namah Shivay'. I believe it used to be aired on Mondays and also remember my family watching it. Although, I never took much interest in this one and so was not a regular with the series. Years later when the phenomenon named 'Amish' hit the Indian literary scene, I still did not pay much attention to his books (Infact, I was urged by many friends to read them) as his first series was the Shiva triology. Only after reading the first two books of Ramayan Series I got a little curious. I was drawn to the writing style of the author as for me he had made the relatively simple characters of 'Ram' and 'Sita' (About whom my knowledge was limited to reading Ramayan, a few stories that I had heard and some refernces in movies and books) into such strong, mesmerizing and poignant people. Since the third book of 'Ramayan Series' was nowhere in vicinity of launch, I decided to read the 'Shiva Triology'. And boy!, what an experience it was to read three books with around 370 pages each in a span on just 10 days with a full-time job and a lot of other responsibilities. 

'Shiva', a barbarian, a migrant, a nobody reaches Meluha by tun of fate, falls in love with the princess of the kingdom, stumbles upon the decree to become 'Neelkanth' and is trusted with the responsibility to rid the great nation of India from a widespread 'Evil'. I am not going to summarize the story here for that is not what touched me the most. I am amazed at the power of writing trough which the author has given such complex and yet believable explanations of the events which till now were only magical religious phenomenons to me like the blue throat and the third eye of the Lord.  His habit of smoking marijuana, his apparel, his temper and his love, all were there for a reason.

The thing that is haunting me hours after finishing the last book is the character of Sati. The bond between Shiva and his wife Sati laid the foundation of whole epic. A bond of true love which lead them to realize their ultimate potential as warriors and Gods. Theirs was a union that balanced them. And was a kind of relationship that strengthened my belief in the institution of marriage where two people support each other to be the best versions of themselves.

Its fascinating that the writer tries to emphasize the point that 'Shiva' was just a normal human being who explores his strengths and becomes 'Mahadev'. This notion fills every heart with hope that someday, with some luck and a hell lot of hard work, if we remain true to ourselves, we all can also become what we are supposed to be, what we were born to become. Because behind this hope is the fear that this life will just end someday in the middle of this chaos without doing anything worthwhile. And that is something nobody should allow to happen to them. Every being is born with the ability to do good and make others life easier. The only question that remains is are we willing to be good, be consumed by that fire of self-exploration and then put in that truck loads of effort in order to fulfill our destiny. And what if the end of this road is not the end yet but another turn. Will we be willing to go on.Will we be able to gather the strength and hold on to the hope of a brighter future to continue. That is the question we all need to answer for ourselves.

-Charu