Shivratri

Its that time of year,
when all beings of the manifest world,
from ants
to birds,animals and even plants ,
behave with a certain cheer,
as if,cosmically 'stirred' out of their sleepy dormancy
into a mood of 'waking'.
We humans too find ourselves bubbly ;
winter has gone, and a sparkling sun
is thawing its way, springing into a fresh sky .
And everyone seems to perceive that certain divinity
about the way Nature begins the season's regeneration.
Shiv bhakts, in particular, seem doubly merry ,
with a definitive halo of authority
that has recently dawned on their countenance ,
getting into busy mode and frenetic festivity..!
And why not?
Its that time of year,when ,
in the dark half of 'Phalgun'
in english February or maybe March
on the on the I3th or I4th day ,
the longest night, which is also moonless and so the darkest ,
has come .
But behold,they say it is the great night of their auspicious lord,
Shiva ratri, the beginning of all light.
Celebrated all over India,
in homes and in temples,
by the ascetics and the householders,
in sobre prayer and in ecstatic intoxication,
by ritual and by trance,
in stillness and in dance,
and many things more.
It is attended by legends,
of the wicked and the devout
the sickly and the stout,
but none agrees on exactly what its about.

Its Shiva's birthday , say some.Others swear its his wedding night with Parvati,
some say that is when the Ananda tandava , 'the first dance' began,
yet others teach of it as the profundity of awakening, saying its the celebration of the day Shiva was illumined about his own divinity.

Given that Shiva is the supreme God,Swayambhu,self created ,who is simultaneously awakened to ,and conjoined with shakti,
perenially wedlocked to him.. joyfully dances, bringing all of creation into being,
it isnt difficult to imagine all of it is true,and possible at one time.
Consider the esoteric aspect first : Yogis inform us that in the Grand, transcendent state of Samadhi, the experience is always the same ,
which is that the Self realizes that it in fact,is the underlying principle of all that there is.
And arising from the Samadhi, the finest exclamation that the yogis can give to their experience of absolute oneness, is, Satchitananda!
Sat is truth, Chit is consciousness,and Ananda is bliss.Satchitananda, therefore,is pure consciousness blissfully knowing itself as the absolute truth.
Now, when Shiva has already made that creation, and lets say he himself enters it in a saguna form,as the embodied yogi,
we often see him sitting in meditation on his lofty mountains, and everytime that he enters samadhi,
the same experience of being in the state prior to all causation, happens.
The very moment that he realises his true nature,that he is the underlying cause of all there is, one can say
he is now born to himSELF.The moment he is so born to himself, he realises he is also brimming with power
that he is married, to power.This gives rises to great joy, the expression of which, is dance, and the result, creation!

Now, in the much loved mythological aspect, when Shiva gets married to Parvati,as samkara, the embodied yogi groom,
it isnt difficult to imagine that in their mountainous honeymoon abode,like all newly marrieds,
he informs her of his greatest treasure,creatorhood, sristi rahasya,he tells her he is the Lord of the Universe,
and He can create , preserve, and re absorb back this Universe into Himself,
becuase of her, his shakti as instrument, Joyfully, the ananda tandav is birthed, and with it
the births, not only of so many worlds, but also the birth of shivashakti's life of teaming and functioning together.
The origin of Shivaratri is attributed to several other stories in Hindu mythology. One links it to samudra manthan,the churning of the Ocean for amrita(ambrosia )by devas and asuras .It is said that during the churning ,the huge serpent Vasuki, being used as the churning rope, vomitted a deadly poison halahal .Ordained by divine law, this had to be consumed first.No one was ready to dispose the venom ,everyone only wanted the amrita. Finally, Lord Shiva, agreed to consume the poison ..and he could, due to his selfless nature and strong meditative prowess ..and so,all was well, thus again , Shivaratri symbolizes the worship of the atman within.
Once Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma argued over each other’s prowess. However, a flaming Linga appeared and the duo went about finding the origin, Brahma, took the form of a swan, flying skyward,and Vishnu became a boar and went below the earth.But both unable to measure the Shivlinga. Then Lord Shiva came out of the Linga and declared himself .so too on shivratri, Lord Shiva is worshiped in a special form of Linga called ‘Lingodabhavamurti or Jyotirlinga.’
Perhaps the most poignant story associated with shiva's worship, is of Gurudruh, a tribal hunter,who came across a deer ,and as he took aim,while himself perched on a tree, he accidentally threw its bilva leave s on a shivlinga below.The inadverdant act brought about a certain mellowing , and he let the deer go.The same deer's sister visited the spot later, and again the hunter dropped leaves, and let the deer go.The sequence got repeated for all four quarters of the night,and in the morning, with shiva completely pleased at such devotion, the transformation of gurudruh was complete.He was later re- born as king chandra bhanu, recalled the tale of the past life, to exhort others of selflessness and worship to Shiva.
So, this Shivratri,when you go to the shivalaya, and offer panchagavya , remember also to offer your selflessness,
remember the true spirit of shiva is to revel in the atman within, and to be good and auspiscious like your Lord to all others!
Aum namah shivaya!
Shail Gulhati is the author of the books :
SHIVA, The Ultimate Time Traveller.
The Yogi and the snake
Shiva Poetry
NAAM ROOP- A Tribute to the Divine
And Life Said.