Shiva Ratri, a yogic celebration

                                                       SHIVA RATRI
                                                                   A YOGIC CELEBRATION

Shiva means consciousness and Ratri means the night. Shiva is the knowledge and the night is the ignorance. Shiva is the male principle and the Ratri is the female principle. Shiva is the sun and the night is the moon. Thus the word “Shiva Ratri” signifies the two existences or truths, Purusha and prakriti. In Vedanta prakriti is called as maya. Maya is also real until one establishes himself with the Brahman, the supreme consciousness. The real celebration is that establishment. It is a journey towards the light. Because Shiva is worshipped in the form of light as “Jyotir lingam”.

For one who is ignorant of that light principle and only dwelling in the prakriti, in the material world, there would be no celebration in one’s life. He may tries to enjoy his life in many ways dancing, singing or drinking but these are not permanent, these push him towards misery. Because he uses only his mind and senses to enjoy this world. And the mind and senses have their own limitations. The real peace and celebration is beyond all the limitations. If your peace is dependent on something, then that is not peace. Peace is beyond everything. In Sanskrit the root word of peace is “Sham”. In vedanta there are six treasures are explained. The first treasure is also “Sham”, meaning control of mind and senses. You can connect the both the peace and control of the mind. When one overcomes the bondage of all the sensual attachment, then one could experience the “Shiva lingam or Jyotir lingam”, which is our real self, guide, God, or whatever you may call it.

I want to explain it in a different way-
Shiva- is the Divine presence

Ra    - the expansion of prana fire
Tri    - Beyond the three state of consciousness
            Beyond the three world (lokas)
            Beyond the three types of pain

The word “Shiva” contains three letters- Sh, I, Va
Sh – consciousness
I   -  energy (shakti)
Va – Vam is the vija of Swadhisthana,(swa- self, adhisthana- residence), the place of kundalini.

Now one can understand clearly what actual Shivaratri is. This is the celebration of playing with energy moving it upwards. Shiva’s cobra signifies that kundalini energy. The consciousness principle can be realized when one expands his prana, the vital force. When the individual pranamaya kosha merges and becomes one with the universal pranic sheath (Ra), and when one’s mastery in overcoming the three states of consciousness, waking, dream and sleep, then only the self or Shiva realization is possible.

The personal mantra of Lord Shiva is Ram. He is the king of all yogis, so he is called “Yogiraja”. He is the king of all dance, so he is called as “Nataraja”. The mantra “Ram” makes Shiva a dancer and a yogi. Without expansion of the prana fire one cannot be a yogi. Prana is the key of yoga. All the actions are the vibration of prana. All the things of this world are different from each other in shape, colour, and so on. The prana is the cause of both union and divisions. When prana expands, one becomes happy, and when it shrinks one becomes sad and painful. The ultimate goal of expansion is to establish the universal love in us.

Nataraja Shiva dances for nothing. He just dances. The dance is part of his being. He does not dance to gain happiness, nor he dances when he is happy. Dance is the nature of realization. We have many examples of realized souls who sing and dance. So that In we have many singing and dancing sadhus. The blockages of various types like ego, greed, anger and so on have snatched the celebration and dance from our lives. Shiva ratri is the festival to release all the blockages and clear the path way, where the Divinity can enter to us, flow in us, melt in us and dance in us.

The first sutra of the “Shiva Sutras,” “Chaitanya atma,” explains the definition of the word “Shiva”. It means the conscious principle Atma is called Shiva. The Upanishad says “Shivoham,” I am Shiva, I am Atman. Only chanting “Shivoham” is meaningless. One has to experience it personally. The experience is the meaning. Shivaratri refers to that practical sadhana experience.

In the night of Shivaratri devotees do not sleep, but they enjoy the night with meditation and remembering the name of Divine name. They do fasting and silence. They follow celibacy and awareness. They follow the discipline as much as they can. The realization  first needs the discipline. In the Yoga Sutras the realization is called as Samadhi. The first sutra of yoga sutra is “ATHA YOGAANUSHASHANAM”. Now yoga discipline. Yoga is Samadhi according to the primary commentator, Vyasa. It means that if you follow the discipline(anushashanam) and can be still in the present moment(atha) the Samadhi(yoga) is not far, it is close at hand.

Now let me describe the traditional way of celebration of Shivaratri.

From the early morning one can see the crowd in the Shiva temple. Maximum Shiva temples are in the bank of the rivers and ponds. Because the devotees pour water on the Shiva lingam. To worship the Shiva lingam we need simply-
                        1. the pure water (jalam, or toyam)
                         2. the vilva leaves (patram)
                         3. champa flowers (puspam)
                         4. dudura fruits      (phalam)
These things are free everywhere. No need to expend a penny to worship or to please the God. Shiva does not see our offerings as donations but he sees the devotion and dedication to him.

When one first goes to the temple, one first pours water over the lingam to clean it. This signifies that the light of atman is covered by the dust of attachment. The first step for enlightenment is physical and emotional purification--what Yoga Sutra says about yamas and Niyamas. After water, one pours and washes the lingam with milk, honey and curd etc. This signifies the transformation of our thought pattern into a more sattvic form. White colour of milk and curd are the symbol sattva. Vilva leaves contain three leaves in one and it has a medicinal quality to release “tri doshas”according to Ayurveda- the kapha, vata and pitta. Also it signifies the three kinds of pain: 1. self created physical or mental, 2. that created by others, 3. that created by nature. Offering these leaves one prays to God to release those pains and to lead into the path of immortality. Another word for flower is “Sumana” meaning good mind. Offering the mind means offering the ego with full of devotion. When one offers his mind then God leads him. He becomes the mere instrument of God. Offering fruits signifies the self-surrender. Through it he does not need anything in return from worship. The worship without expectation is the real worship. The real worship happens in silence. When you offer anything physically to Shiva feel silence inside, just enjoy the worshipping, just play with the God. Dance with him! Make the temple your playground, a place of joy and fun. You suddenly feel that Shiva in totality will descend in you. Descending of Divinity is the celebration of Shivaratri.

All fruits and flowers are not allowed to offer but only a few special kinds are needed. When they all get together with the water a chemical reaction happens. The water becomes like a syrup which helps to eliminate the uncurable disease after drinking it. In a man or woman who has no children goes to the Shiva temple to worship. Following the discipline, and drinking that water continuously for some days they get the strength to gave birth. My friend Tularam Sahu had a disease. He went to the Shiva temple in our village to please Lord Shiva. He stayed there for 27 days with total fasting, Later on he left out even water. It is unbelievable, but it is true. He had a resolution (samkalpa) that if Shiva does not appear I will not return home alive. Actually people do not share the experience after coming from the temple. Also we can not ask. On 27^th day village people went and brought him. He had only his prana and his skeleton. But now he is well enough.

The Maha mrityunjaya mantra is very powerful for curing the all types of illness and miseries. Finally it leads to Moksha (liberation). It is a Vedic mantra like Gayatri. If one does not know it, the simple mantra (OM NAMAH SHIVAYA) is also enough. In this celebration remember this mantra to be one with Divinity.

It is a very interesting subject to discuss Lord Shiva’s family. He has the best family. The Indian family system follows the order of his family. Shiva is a great yogi as well as a householder. Only a yogi can be the best householder. Nowadays the people think a house holder can not be a yogi. Without yoga a man is like a demon and their house is like a hell. Because there is no happiness there. Here yoga does not mean postures and sitting in Padmasana for hours. Yoga is a way of life. So perhaps 90 percent of the population is unhappy today.

In Shiva’s family he has a wife, Mother Parvati, two sons Ganesha and Kartikeya. Shiva rides on a bull and always has cobras, and scorpions (poisonous creatures) around him. Parvati rides on lion, Ganesha rides on mouse, and Kartikeya rides on a peacock. There is no cage is made for lion. There are no different places for peacocks and snakes. We see all the animals of his house are different in nature. They can not easily stay together. The lion will kill the bull, the peacock will kill the snake, the snake will kill the mouse. Despite this, here they are living in one home freely. It is only possible because of the meditation of Lord Shiva which makes the home peaceful and non-violent. The meditative power of Shiva makes the lion forget his cruelty and bull forget his fear. Everybody is enjoying the love and playing together with a great ecstacy. In many of our families even the husband and wife can not stay together. In the west the divorce become a part of their society. In the modern age we do not see the love between the son and father. There is no respect for parents  and elders. What’s a pity? We have to follow the Shiva’s family to make our family happy and peaceful.

Shiva is the master of non-possesiveness. He does not even use a nice cloth, but the tiger skin which he gets freely. He has no attachment with the mind and senses. So that his devotees called him “BHOLENATH”. But besides his non attachment and non possessiveness he does make his wife to wear the skin. You see Mother Parvati wear the beautiful saree, gold and she looks very beautiful. Shiva does not forget to take care of the wishes of his wife and children.

The yogi can produce wise children. His son Ganesha is so brilliant and wise. He is worshiped as the god of knowledge and auspiciousness. Kartikeya , the south Indians call him Subramaniam. He is a great teacher of tantra and he is worshipped as a fire God. To produce good children there needs harmony in the family. The best souls are searching for this type of family to come. There is nothing called fate; birth does not happen accidentally. Buddha, Jesus, Nanak were not born accidentally. The harmony and peace of the family gives a chance to the children to think freely and choosing a path freely. There needs the freedom but also the following of discipline. In modern times we feel ourselves free, but because of our indiscipline our freedom makes for trouble and pain in our life. This system of discipline and freedom was taught to the students of the Gurukulam in ancient .

A heart full Greetings for Shivaratri to you. Celebrate it  fully so that you may achieve the state of fullness.

May the ever flowing and cool Ganga which originates from shiva’s head  flow in your heart and make your mind and emotion cool.

By Vishnu

created: 03-06-2008 19:11, last modified: 03-06-2008 19:25