Everybody who worships Shiva, the great god of Hindus, or those who have seen Shiva-worship, know what Shiva-Lingam is. Shiva Lingam, also called as Pindi is composed of two parts. The central oval mass standing like a pillar is ‘Bana’ and around this Bana there is an oval or oblong ‘Salunka’ or ‘Vedi’. By looking at this Lingam no sensible person can imagine a sexual union. But unfortunately the Western scholars wrongly associated this Lingam with the phallus, a male sexual organ, and saw obscenity in this worship. They say that Bana is the and Salunka is the vagina, a female sex organ, and thus copulation is represented in the Shiva-Lingam. By any stretch of imagination, we cannot see the two sex organs in the Lingam. The Bana appears to have come out, upwards through the Salunka; it is not penetrating down into the Salunka, to think of sexual symbolism. 
Some scholars say that the conception of phallicism occurred to the primitive people and they started this Shiva-Linga - worship. It is an established fact that the philosophy of the Upanishads has made the thinkers of the modern world almost blind by its dazzling light of knowledge. The people who attained such a high quality of wisdom and philosophy cannot be condemned as primitive. Those philosophers were worshipping Shiva Lingam. Can that be sexual symbolism? Can a person who has got his own sex organ, ever go to a temple to see the same thing there? Impossible.Those, who say of Shiva Lingam as sexual symbol, are themselves primitive,because they cannot see anything else but sexuality.

Why did this sense of phallicism arise? It is because those people took wrong meaning of the word ‘Lingam.’ Lingam is, now, taken as a word suggesting sex, but its original meaning is a ‘sign’ or ‘symbol’. For example,Mahatma Gandhi was recognized by his charkha, while a doctor is recognized by his stethoscope. Charkha and stethoscope are the signs or symbols of Mahatma Gandhi and a Doctor respectively. In Sanskrit we would say Charkha is the Lingam of Gandhiji, while stethoscope is the Lingam of Doctor. Similarly Lingam of Gandhiji is Charkha. Formerly it was said that the Lingam of Indra was Vajra, Lingam of Brahmadeva was lotus. Thus ‘Linga’ means a sign or symbol by which a particular person is recognized. This is the basic meaning of Lingam and in this basic sense Kathopanishad 2/3/8 says, “The Purusha which is superior to unmanifested Brahma has no “Lingam”. Later on, with the same basic meaning the word Lingam was applied to the organ by which male and female are distinguished; and that meaning later became more popular.

Now, with these clear basic ideas let us think of Shiva Lingam. Before considering the ‘lingam’, let us see what Shiva Himself is. For this consideration we will refer to Vyasa, author of the epic Mahabharata and the oldest and the greatest of the intellectuals and historians. Vyasa was also a great sage, a seer, who had achieved superhuman powers, the Siddhis. He has written so many books of such a high quality that there is no comparison for him in the whole world. Let us see what Vyasa says about Shiva.

Everybody who worships Shiva, the great god of Hindus, or those who have seen Shiva-worship, know what Shiva-Lingam is. Shiva Lingam, also called as Pindi is composed of two parts. The central oval mass standing like a pillar is ‘Bana’ and around this Bana there is an oval or oblong ‘Salunka’ or ‘Vedi’. By looking at this Lingam no sensible person can imagine a sexual union. But unfortunately the Western scholars wrongly associated this Lingam with the phallus, a male sexual organ, and saw obscenity in this worship. They say that Bana is the and Salunka is the vagina, a female sex organ, and thus copulation is represented in the Shiva-Lingam. By any stretch of imagination, we cannot see the two sex organs in the Lingam. The Bana appears to have come out, upwards through the Salunka; it is not penetrating down into the Salunka, to think of sexual symbolism. 
Some scholars say that the conception of phallicism occurred to the primitive people and they started this Shiva-Linga - worship. It is an established fact that the philosophy of the Upanishads has made the thinkers of the modern world almost blind by its dazzling light of knowledge. The people who attained such a high quality of wisdom and philosophy cannot be condemned as primitive. Those philosophers were worshipping Shiva Lingam. Can that be sexual symbolism? Can a person who has got his own sex organ, ever go to a temple to see the same thing there? Impossible.Those, who say of Shiva Lingam as sexual symbol, are themselves primitive,because they cannot see anything else but sexuality.

Why did this sense of phallicism arise? It is because those people took wrong meaning of the word ‘Lingam.’ Lingam is, now, taken as a word suggesting sex, but its original meaning is a ‘sign’ or ‘symbol’. For example,Mahatma Gandhi was recognized by his charkha, while a doctor is recognized by his stethoscope. Charkha and stethoscope are the signs or symbols of Mahatma Gandhi and a Doctor respectively. In Sanskrit we would say Charkha is the Lingam of Gandhiji, while stethoscope is the Lingam of Doctor. Similarly Lingam of Gandhiji is Charkha. Formerly it was said that the Lingam of Indra was Vajra, Lingam of Brahmadeva was lotus. Thus ‘Linga’ means a sign or symbol by which a particular person is recognized. This is the basic meaning of Lingam and in this basic sense Kathopanishad 2/3/8 says, “The Purusha which is superior to unmanifested Brahma has no “Lingam”. Later on, with the same basic meaning the word Lingam was applied to the organ by which male and female are distinguished; and that meaning later became more popular.

Now, with these clear basic ideas let us think of Shiva Lingam. Before considering the ‘lingam’, let us see what Shiva Himself is. For this consideration we will refer to Vyasa, author of the epic Mahabharata and the oldest and the greatest of the intellectuals and historians. Vyasa was also a great sage, a seer, who had achieved superhuman powers, the Siddhis. He has written so many books of such a high quality that there is no comparison for him in the whole world. Let us see what Vyasa says about Shiva.