Pashupati is not the Lord of Animals

Lord Shiva is worshipped by many in his Pashupati form. Literally, the word pashupati means the ‘lord of the animals’. The word pashu means animal. This comes from the root-sound pash which means to fix, to bind, to see (to fix the eyes) etc. An animal is called pashu because it is fixed or tied with a rope to be kept under control. In us, the human beings, it is the animal consciousness made up of the impulses of the nervous mentality that reigns. This animal consciousness is a bondage or paasha which hampers the evolutionary progress of the individual. It is because of this reason that in the Tantric tradition, each individual bound by avidyaa or spiritual nescience is called pashu. The animal consciousness that binds has to be kept under control, transformed and be raised upward to the all luminous world (goloka) which is the highest goal or summit of the evolutionary journey. Lord Shiva in his Pashupati form is the one who controls and leads this animal being in its ascension towards the summit. Sri Aurobindo makes it clear when he says, it is he “…who begins in the evolution as the Master of the animals, Pashupati, and moves upward on the mountain of being on which he dwells, ranging through more and more difficult and inaccessible places, till he stands upon the summits.”

The Tantric tradition recognizes three types of aspirants: pashu or animal, vira or heroic and divya or divine. These are the three stages of evolution. One has to grow from the level of man-animal to the man-human to the man-divine. It is Shiva who deals with the animal consciousness and by his fierce powers he makes the aspirant free from the paasha or bondage of pashutva or animal hood. Note that both pashu and paasha are from the same root, pash ‘to fix, to bind’. The Tantric tradition confirms that at the pashu or animal level one has the maximum paasha or bondages. So deliverance from the paasha is the chief function of Shiva in his Pashupati form. They who live in their animal consciousness and aspire to be delivered or raised above, it is Shiva in his Pashupati form who helps them and leads them in their upward journey. He is the lord of transformation. Opposed he is Rudra, the violent one, and obeyed he is Ashutosha, the most benevolent and easily pleased lord.

Psychologically, our mental evolution begins with the pashu, ‘the animal consciousness made up of the impulses of the nervous mentality’. This pashu, as we progress in the ascension, becomes the brilliant herds of the Sun, gaavah, rays or the divine cows of the Veda. It is Shiva who begins this evolution and leads to the achievement of the cows or the Brilliance, Light, the all luminous World (goloka) of which Vishnu is the Lord. (It is in this sense that Vishnu is called Govinda, the possessor and guardian of cows or Light.)