yeah i was asked that question by one of my females classmates on our religion class........man that was a funny question...... everybody had a good laugh.......and also lot of ppl tell me abt that carving of sex positions in our temple.....interesting huh?

Hinduism is such a male dominated religion that when we talk about Shiva linga we forget the YONI attached to the linga.

Why didn't they called it Parvati Yoni instead?

The presence of such hard core sexual images in Hinduism makes you wonder if Hinduism was some kind of perverse hedonistic cult that flourished as a religion.

Hindu societies are full of contradictions. In one hand we have hard core sexual images of gods and goddesses implying sexual freedom; and in the other hand we have such importance for virginity before marriage (exists in many hindus).

In one hand gods and goddesses are shown practicing orgies ie. with multiple sexual partners. In some cases even bestiality is performed ie. sexuality with animals. You can see these statues all over Kathmandu. In other hand there is so much importance on being loyal to one partner in hindu society.

We Nepalis are result of such contradictory beliefs and culture. No wonder our country is fked up.

Saroj, Hinduism is a male dominated? Is it? LOL ... Let's not mix culture and religion... :D

shiva linga=shivas dick as simple as that. And we stupid people(or smart)
worship it. Basically hindu religion involves plenty of sex and it is only fitting
that we worship dick of one of the most powerful gods.

Nepalisahila ko to excerpt man paryo. But thats the literal explanation to the common people in ancient times when explanation to the uneducated would take time. The actual meaning, like I would understand is the birth of nature. Shiva linga, which by the way must be the linga of all lingas, the one that women worship and crave for, is actually a symbol of procreation and birth, same with the vagina, yoni.
In fact, I'm not sure if you guys are aware of this but the temple besides Pashupatinaath, Guhyashawri, one of the 51 shakti peeths, is where the goddess Shakti's "guhya" or ahem...anus fell when her body was decaying. Thats why the water there smells so bad, and it has been like that for centuries before bagmati was polluted.
The part where her genital fell is called kamakshyaya and it is in india and is worshipped likde crazy.
So i think its cool we have a religion that worships sexuality itself.

but isn't it ironic that sex is still a taboo in our society despite being so deeply embeded into the religion itself.....(and i know that the spelling of embeded is wrong......i just dot know the right one....pls dont bother picking that out....poor english.....)

young
i think that has got to do with how soceity evovled over time. i really don't wan to diverge like before tara just for the sake of example, hindisum worships the female creation. all the most powerful and respectable qualiteis are attributed to godesses such as durga, kali, saraswoti, laxmi...so on and so forth and see how our country treats women like second class citizens. education of women is still not prevalent idea and in all sectors of soceity, women are misrespresented. my point being what we practise in society does no reflect what our religion teaches us. when people started settling down, perhaps they had to make rules that would best serve their self interest. so making sex a taboo was probably the best way to ensure that men and women do not become corrupt and filled with lust etc etc. just my hypothesis. i am no expert.

How'd u describe a shiva linga to a non Hindu?

You say it's Shiva's penis

bhusan
please hai. its more complicated than that. the student might ask "so how hindus worship shiva's penis but not yours??" what you going to say then?

If they ask that question you can say, " why do christians worship jesus and not you".

u tried to boil down the whole thing to a penis. so i gave a counterexample. then u said jesus christ. exactly! because jesus christ offers something that a normal person does not, shiva's penis/phallus offers something more symbolic than any random penis k. that was my point. but lets not get too heated about it.

I tried to boil the whole thing to a penis? Well we are talking about Shiva Linga. which is shiva's penis. Why is that so hard for you to swallow.

Excuse the pun!

very funny!

By the way I just thought of a new Name for whiskey makers in Nepal.

Shiva's Regal

It sounds like Chivas Regal but it's gonna be cheaper and better.

bad idea!

"We Nepalis are result of such contradictory beliefs and culture. No wonder our country is fked up."

Yeah like king taking over absolute power to save democracy.

I have to agree here with Saroj.

hurray
i decided not to post anything for the rest of the day tara please don't integrate two completey different thigns. what king did in our country to "save" democracy was a gross political act (keep in mind, our country's problems did not originate with him though). our country is not fked up as you say. it is just going through a phase of revolution, a clash of classes, a conflict between the opressor and the opressed. this problem is political.
what we are arguing in this thread has more to do with religion and society's values. u cannot put them together and make conclusions. i think. i am not saying you are wrong. tat's how i feel. don't get angry like some other sajha members haiii.

There is no big deal about the fact that we worship shiva's linga. According to the hindu mythology, seven sages (saptarishi) cursed him for a crime which he did not commit and that's why his genital organ had to come off. The seven sage wives (sapta rishi patni) used to worship lord Shiva immensely, but their husbands took it in other ways. If lord Shiva's hand had come off due to curse, we would still have worshipped him equally. Its not the thing that we worship god's penis, but the fact is we worship him that is why we worship everything associated with him.

It is interesting to see that while Hindu religion have given due respect to WOMANHOOD, our culture have failed to do so. Interesting also is to note all the big wars in our mythology have women associated as main reasons behind them. Sita, Suparnakha and Draupadi all were women and unfortunately all of them have contributed for the initiation of the wars in their respective period. Something to think about.

Shiva linga is in fact genetial organ of Shiva as many of us thing. Not only that see the words "Bhagabati" and "Bhagani". Both words have similar meaning of person with female genetial organ. But how it is so popular and why people even worship is still surprising for me. Do we are all wild and uncevilized yet to worship genetial organ? Any one has answer?

.The following is my own interpretation of the shiva-linga:

Take a close look at the shiva linga posted below. Most of us only see the "linga", but have you ever thought about the figure the "linga" stands on?

Upon a good inspection, the structure upon which the linga sits atop looks much like a "vagina".

So, I see the shiva linga not just as a "linga" but as a metaphorical visual description of the "sexual intercourse".

mr. lonely
it is not just hinduism that blames women for problems. in the new testament, it is because of Eve (she convinced adam to eat the forbidden fruit re) God cursed mankind. in greek mythology, it was pandora who opened the box and let all the evils fly into earth.....interesting eh?