Shivaratri

shiva Ratri is a great Hindu festival. The entire Hindu community has been celebrating this day from the time immemorial. This great day falls exactly in the middle of the dark forth-night of Falgun month. It is on this day that tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims from India pour into the Kathmandu valley to pay tributes to Lord Shiva at Pashupati Nath temple, situated on the bank of the holy river, Bagamati. The pilgrims before they walk up to the temple go down to the river Bagamati and take purification bath, no matter how cold it is and only after that, they proceed towards the temple to make offering and pray to Lord Shiva. The Pashupati Nath—temple is the holiest of Hindu places of pilgrimage for the entire Hindu community. This is, the most used and most impressive temple in Nepal. The elaborate workmanship on the solid silver doorways in each side of this temple and its thickly gold plated roof with a beautiful trident (a symbol of Hindu Trinity) gracing the temple top is really worth-noting. There are several stories and mythological anecdotes associated with the origin of this wonderful Mela (fair), Shiva Ratri. Some of them are highly symbolical and may even sound a bit crazy to non-Hindu ears, fascinating and quite close to the sense. However, the main purpose of each of these stories is but to explain the significance of Shiva Ratri in a bit folklorish style though. Here is a story that throws some light on the significance of Shiva Ratri. One dark evening, a hunter called Chanda was chased by a wild animal. Awfully panic-stricken he quickly climbed a tree near-by to save his life. He had to keep himself awake, all night on the tree for the fear of the animal waiting on the ground. In course of time he got so restless that he could not help tearing out leaves from the twig and let them fall down unawares. All the leaves he tore out-by chance-fell straight on a lingam which was installed exactly under the same tree. He did not notice it at all. In addition to this, that particular night, happened to be Shiva Ratri day and that tree- to be a (margosa) or bilva tree (a favourite tree of Lord Shiva). Soon after the day break, he got down and hurried back home where his wife was waiting for him all night, without any sleep. Thus their keeping awake all night and fasting, unknowingly of course. in a sacred Shiva night brought them home the blessing of god and they became happy for ever . Another story goes like this Once a Brahmin lady had an illegal love affairs with a man from the lowest caste family. As a result of this, a son was born to them and unfortunately, he turned out to be the worst sinner. One day, he happened to pass by a Shiva temple where a discourse on the glorious acts and adventures of Lord Shiva was going on. The entire discourse sounded so divine to him that he sat down on the floor and listened to it all night till it came to the end. For this, he was soon rewarded with divine wisdom and in his another life he was given better place to make him feel happy enough. From all this one dan well assume how significant the Shiva Ratri is for every Hindu. Now let us discuss a bit more about the significance of the sacred night of Shiva again. The question might arise here: What is so special about this particular night ? One can well assume that the night is dominated by the moon as the day by the sun. The moon has 16 different moods or say movements. In other words, each day it undergoes the process of waning. Every night a part of it is reduced. This process continues until it is all gone. Only after all this happenings, the New Moon comes into sight Then it goes on gaining its look and light both by degrees until it blooms itself into Full Moon Night again. In the holy Hindu scriptures, the moon is regarded as the presiding deity of the human mind. A great saint rightly says: "Out of the Manas of the Punisha, the Moon was born. There is a close affinity between the mind and the moon. Because both are subject to decline and progress." The fourteenth day of the dark fortnight is from various points of view a perfect point- free from prejudice. To put it in another words, it is a kind of spiritual night from where one can equally visualise both sides of one's soul. It is like saying-one can have the thorough view of the day and the night both- at the same time from that particular point. Chaturdasi, the midnight of the dark fortnight of this month, is considered as a divine point of self-realisation. Once one makes a little effort on this auspicious day to reach this point, he is believed to enable himself well enough to control his mind and gain good grace of god. This is the reason why in our religious, culture this day is regarded as a choicest day of Lord Shiva and popularly called Shiva Ratri Day. On this auspicious day, all the Hindus are advised to keep themselves awake all night praying and making offerings to Lord Shiva. There is a very popular saying that those who go to bed early that night must be sinful souls. As elderly people would say, even the dogs who are intelligent won't touch the food that day . According to the Puranas, it is on this sacred night that Lord Shiva assumed the form of Lingam (phallic symbol) to save the universe from a big threat of destruction. What happened was like this : when he swallowed the Halahala Poison emanated from the intensive churning of the mythical milky ocean, the heat of this poison proved so unbearable that he could not wait for a nice and cool Himalayan shower. It is said that it was the time the Ganges rushed to him to pour all the waters she had and continued to do so for ever. This story also explains the significance of the ritualistic offering of the holy water through Jalahari- a kind of copper cup that hangs right above the Shiva Lingam and the water drips down from this cup almost continuously. This was of course a big relief for him, yet Lord Shiva was expecting some thing even more cooler. It is said that Shiva became happy only when the whole of the moon was tucked in the matted lock of his heat-stricken head. Then Shiva overwhelmed with joy danced a Tandawa Nritya_wild dance of ecstacy. As mentioned in the Puranas, it was on the Shiva Ratri Day, night danced this dance. Some thing highly symbolical about this story is Lord Shiva's assuming the form of matter (Ling), whereas he was so strongly believed to be the god of formlessness (cosmic power). This version of the story might confuse the readers in the beginning but it soon disappears when one realises the divine purpose and the nature of life principle. Had not Shiva emmerged out of the Lingam and given Darshana (appearance) to his beloved devotees, what would have been the situation of the world like ? I believe one could well imagine the result on the background of whatever was mentioned above. Now a little bit about Nandi bull, the vehicle of Lord Shiva. One might raise the question •. why Shiva is so fond of the bull, such a dull creature ? According to the Hindu tradition, every individual is an expression of the principle of the creative pleasure (Ananda). The most refined and truest form of creative pleasure is the creative lust (Kama). Lord Shiva typifies the divine principle of Kama being the master of the bull, the innocent one. Nandi itself means producer of the creative pleasure, though in the matter form. Nandi is also said to be the symbol of the entire bovine race for whom Lord Shiva always had sympathy and love. Hence Shiva s another popular name is Pashupati Nath-meaning the Lord of all animals. So to say, the protector of all the weak and innocent creature. This is one of the very strong reasons why all the Hindus worship this very Linga-form of Shiva. As a matter of fact during the entire celebration of Shiva Ratri, Lingam becomes central attraction of the entire activities of the ceremonial worship. The main message of this Shiva Ratri for all the Hindus is that one should gradually learn to control the mind and finally stay away from it because the mind is the root cause of the entire woes and agonies. The restless nature of our mind is nothing but Maya (Illusion) that has nothing special of spiritual value to offer to us. So it does deserve our good care. A great saint rightly says : "On Shiva Ratri Day our mind should not be allowed to run on any thing but into Shiva Lingarn- which is the perfect point to realise oneself iiiik with god." -