Ardhanarisvara : Truth of human sexuality and gender equality

Ardha meaning half, Nari meaning women and Isvara -meaning lord combines to give birth to the concept of Ardhanarisavara meaning the lord who is half women. 

What is Ardhanarisvar?

Ardhanarisvara is the ultimate representation of Shiva and Shakti. It is the ultimate truth. It is the genesis. Shiva and Shakti are one. It is one of the manifestations of Shiva who is beyond any human attributes and comprehensions.

     Ardhanarisvara gave rise to the inception of this universe through masculine and feminine energies represented by the unification of Shiva and Shakti to form cosmic energy. Shiva symbolizes destruction and shakti represents construction. Both these energies must embrace and fuse with each other to generate and sustain the universe. This idea is also brought forth by the union of Linga(Penis) of Shiva and the Yoni(Vagina) of the Shaki, thus giving rise to the birth of the entire cosmos.

 

                                                                Yoni Linga Mudra

Human Sexuality 

The representation of Ardhanarisvar also symbolizes the fact that there is a masculine side of a female and a feminine side of a male.  Carl Jung's theory of Anima and Animus is the modern representation of the concept of Ardhanarisvar.

No human beings are completely unisexual. It is the predominance of one over the other sex which determines sexuality. A female gamete always carries one X chromosome and a male gamete may either carry one X chromosome or one Y. So masculinity and femininity remain in one organism.

It symbolizes that every being in this world tends to unite with something outside or inside his/her body which explains the difference in sexual orientations in humans.

Hindus see shiva as the ultimate lord and people are yet not realizing what has been taught to us since the very beginning. 

It's very painful to see people hating on someone just for their sexual orientation. It would have never been the issue if we were taught hating them is hating Shivashakti just like how we were taught to pray to animals and plants else it will be an insult to gods as written in scriptures while it was all meant for their protection. Most of the people don't know about this because as time passed, people started manipulating the ultimate teaching by covering it up with various folklores and stories, and falsely depicting anything other than heterosexuality is a sin. It was never a sin. 

(This has nothing to do with the context but I think that it was Shiva who unified Shakti into himself not the other way because of the fact that the males have XY chromosomes while females have XX.) 

Gender Equality 

There are many different stories and myths regarding the emergence of Ardhanarisvara in various Purana but most of them portray shakti/Parvati as inferior to lord shiva which is completely false. You will read the stories of Parvati accusing shiva of infidelity and being jealous of Ganga and therefore, Shiva unifying her into himself to prove his love. These stories may have come as a result of the mere human household representation.

As I see it, Ardhanarisvara is formless and something beyond anyone's imagination. The fact that it is the ultimate alpha and omega representing destruction and construction to be the same and there being no duality or totality lying beyond duality symbolizes the optimal balance of the male and female energies in this world and also indicates that they are essentially inseparable forces, which are complementary to each other and must work together to maintain equilibrium. It shows the unity in the opposites of (Male)Purusha and (Female)Prakriti.

Both male half and Female half, together are equally powerful but without one another, powerless.

Shiva is Power, Shakti is the one who uses it. 

The true concept of Ardhanarisvara as a symbol of gender equality never became an established culture because patriarchy never let it.  

Nobody knows who came up with the idea that Shiva being the right side is the dominant half and Shakti being the left is inferior half. There is no such thing. They are equal and inseparable and interdependent.

The sides represent nothing but their personality trait. Shakti is the left side because we have our heart on the left side which symbolizes love, intuition, and emotion while the Right represents strength, systematic thought. These are just typical traits while the genders may show the traits of the opposite gender. Just like how the right and left side of our body works in coordination, so should males and females without being tagged dominant or inferior side.

God never created any differences, we did.

Apart from teaching us about human sexuality and gender equality, Ardhnarisvara holds much more significance and is a very broad concept. Shiva represents spiritualism and Shakti represents materialism and the illusionary world, down to the fact how they are presented, shiva with no clothes and body covered with ashes and matted hair symbolizes the simple lifestyle and free of worldly connections and Shakti with all beautiful pieces of jewelry symbolizes materialistic needs. The contrasting skin tone is another meaningful representation. The concept of the popular Yin-Yang symbol is also a part of  Ardhanarisvara. 

Feel free to suggest and criticize. Most importantly discuss this with your friends and families, the issue of hatred toward LGBTQ and gender inequality is a serious problem.