Mahashivarathri- A Night of Awakening

01 February, 2000

In the Indian culture, at one time, there used to be 365 festivals in a year. In other words, they just needed an excuse to celebrate every day of the year. And these 365 days, or these 365 festivals, were ascribed to different reasons, and for different purposes of life. There are various festivals to celebrate various historical events, victories over foes and there are various other celebrations or festivals which are of life relevance. For every situation in life, like harvesting, planting, reapingS - from the day you bring the seed into the house, to the day you sell your produce in the market - there were festivals. But Mahashivarathri is of a different significance. Mahashivarathri is very significant for people who are on the spiritual process; it is also very significant for people who are in family situations, and it is also very significant for the ambitious in the world.

When we say Shiva, most people are looking at him as some kind of a god who is beyond everything. But if you look at the Shiva Purana, his life process, he went through everything that any human being would go through. He is the most beautiful, he is the ugliest, he is a great ascetic, he is a family person. He is the most disciplined, he is a drunkard, a drug addict, he is a dancer, he is absolutely still; he is many things at the same time. Gods worship him, demons worship him, all kinds of creatures in the world worship him.

One reason why it's been made this way is, if you can accept this man who is a complex formation of every quality you can find on this planetS, you can accept every quality you can find in the universe, whether it's beautiful or ugly. Whether it is great or low, whether it is heaven or hell, everything is in him. If you can accept him, you have crossed life itself. If you can accept this man who is the most beautiful and the most horrible at the same time, then you have passed life very easily.

The whole struggle with this life is, we are always trying to pick out what is beautiful and what is not, what is good and what is bad. Shiva is a terrible combination of everything put together.

By people who live in family situations, Mahashivarathri is worshipped as Shiva's wedding anniversary. For the ascetics, that is the day that he became one with Kailash, that is he became like a mountain, still; absolutely still. After millenniums of meditation, one day he became absolutely still, that day is Mahashivarathri. All movement in him stopped and he became utterly still. So ascetics see Mahashivarathri as the day of stillness. For the ambitious, the volatile in the world see that day as the day Shiva conquered all his enemies.

So whatever the legends, the significance of the Mahashivarathri day is, we know that every 14th day of the month is the Shivarathri. People who are on the spiritual path, have special sadhanas on those days, because on that day in the month, there is a natural upsurge of energies in the human body. The Puranas say, "Blessed are those whose spines are erect". If you were still a creature whose spine was horizontal, you could not make use of it. But blessed are those who have an erect spine, so that on the Mahashivarathri day, effortlessly they can move heavenward. Naturally there is an upsurge of energies, there's an upward movement of energy in the human body on that day.

This day which is Mahashivarathri, happens once in a year. It is all the more significant for the same reason. So spiritual sadhakas want to keep their spines erect for the whole day. This night we are supposed to spend awake, aware, with our spines erect so that whatever sadhana we are doing, there is a great assistance from nature on this day, so that the natural upward movement happens. All evolution in a human being is fundamentally an upward movement in energy. Every practice, every sadhana that a spiritual sadhaka does is only to move his energies upward. From being just a biological entity to become a spiritual process, what is needed is an upward movement of energy.

When we exist here catering to the physical aspect of nature, which is our body, we will be just survival and pro-creation. The physical dimension of the existence really has no other purpose. If you look at every creation on this planet, you will see everything is constantly aspiring to survive and pro-create so that life just goes on. But once you have become human, you know that life just going on is not sufficient for you anymore. If you are any other creature, life just going on is sufficient, but once you have your spine erect, life just going on is not sufficient for you.

READ MORE :: Mahashivarathri, the Power of the Manthra ~>