SHIVA: AS I CAME TO KNOW HIM by Gunjan Kaushik

 

🌙 I didn’t just read this book. I found myself pausing between its pages.

SHIVA: AS I CAME TO KNOW HIM

by Gunjan Kaushik

There was a point while reading this book when I stopped thinking of it as a book about Shiva.

It started feeling like a book about what happens to us when everything we thought we were begins to loosen.

That idea appears very early, when an ordinary evening suddenly feels different. Nothing around the narrator has changed, yet something inside has. The worries, roles, expectations and carefully constructed identity begin to develop cracks. I especially liked the way Shiva doesn't arrive with some dramatic revelation - his presence is felt quietly, almost like a fault line opening beneath an otherwise normal life.

And then came some of my favourite passages. 🌊

The moment when the Ganga descends after destruction, described almost as a cool current moving through the weight of everything that has been carried for years, was beautifully written. Then comes the damru - not simply as a sound, but as a rhythm that seems to synchronize breath, thought and awareness. And later, the image of the crescent moon bringing a gentler kind of clarity felt completely different from the intensity of the earlier chapters.

But Kaal Bhairav was where the book really surprised me. 🔥

The writing takes fear, approval, control, jealousy and resentment and turns the mirror inward. Even the symbolism of Bhairav's dog becomes meaningful - the need to be validated, appreciated and constantly reassured. I found that section particularly relatable because the book doesn't tell you to simply get rid of these feelings. It asks you to actually look at them.

And perhaps that is what stayed with me most.

This isn't a book that constantly tells you what to believe. It keeps asking you to look closer.

At times, it is spiritual. At times, deeply psychological. And at times, surprisingly intimate.

✨ If you've ever wondered whether letting go means losing something or finally discovering what was underneath it, this is a book worth opening.

Just don't rush through it.

Some pages deserve to be read… and then quietly sat with. 🕉️📖