Several festivals are celebrated in India. We have a festival for almost every occasion, season and spiritual purpose. Perhaps the most significant of these is Mahashivratri, the great night of Shiv. It is observed with meditation, prayers and fasting; an occasion focused on introspection and devotion, a time to transcend materialism and focus on the Divine.
Festivals such as Diwali and Holi are more widely celebrated, with joyous gatherings, social interactions, and outward displays of happiness. They are celebrations of victory, abundance, and community bonding. Mahashivratri, on the other hand, is observed with meditation, prayers and fasting. It focuses on introspection and devotion. It is a night when devotees seek Shiv’s blessings to remove negative energies and attain wisdom. The solemn observance of the festival is in keeping with the fundamental change. It commemorates the removal of the inner darkness of ignorance, ego and desires and the dawn of spiritual enlightenment. This spiritual renewal is what creates a new world order.
The physical reality we see around us is a manifestation of human consciousness: factories, hospitals and prisons are first created in human minds in the form of ideas and then take physical shape. Similarly, an enlightened consciousness is the first step towards creating a new world order. Just as any number of artificial lights, stars in the sky, and even the full moon cannot turn night into day, the darkness of spiritual night can be dispelled only by God.
Shivratri commemorates the beginning of this task by Shiv. He is also worshipped as ‘Sarveshwar’, the Lord of deities. Unlike deities with a physical or subtle body, Shiv is incorporeal. He is worshipped in the image of the ‘lingam’, an oval-shaped stone that does not have a human form and features as depicted in murtis of deities. The ‘jyotirlingam‘ Shiv temples underline the nirakar, an incorporeal form of Shiv.
Shiv is called ‘Ajanma’, who never takes birth, and Mrityunjay is immortal. He is also said to be the One who doesn’t have parents, which is why the word ‘Shambu’, short for ‘Swayambhu’ – the one who incarnates on his own, the one who cannot be created – is suffixed to Shiv’s name. He always remains ‘karmateet’, beyond karmic accounts and ‘sadamukt’, beyond the cycle of birth and death to grant mukti, liberation and jivan mukti, fruition in life to all.
Almighty Shiv awakens us to our true identity; we are essentially human souls, not mere material bodies. He reminds us of our relationship with Him, father of all souls. By remembering Him, we can restore the lost mental connection and intellectual communion with Him and facilitate His divine powers and virtues to flow freely into our beings to cleanse us of our old, damaging habits and make us pure and wholesome again.
Through this transformative and holistic change, human character, conduct, and culture become divine, and the world transforms into heaven. Mahashivratri marks the start of such a spiritual process of renewal and renaissance.
Authored by: Brahma Kumari Asha
The writer is on Management Committee of Brahma Kumaris
