Mahashivaratri
In the following discourse Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has explained the meaning of Shivaratri and how it should be celebrated. This year the holy festival falls on March 6th.
Many stories are told in the shastras [scriptures] to explain the origin and significance of the Mahashivaratri [night of Shiva] festival. Bharat [India], the name used from ancient times, means the land of those who have rati or love toward Bha (for Bhagavan). So, for the people of this land, all days are sacred and every moment is precious. The River Ganga [Ganges] is holy from its source to the sea, but there are places on its banks—associated with some sage or temple, the confluence of a tributary, or a historical incident—that are revered more by generations of people. Such places are Haridwar, Varanasi, Prayag, and Rishikesh. Similarly, among all the days of the year, some are marked as holier, when a special effort is made by aspirants to contact the source and the sea, the reality behind all this passing show.
Some moments, as that during which the linga [symbol of Shiva] emerges from the Avatar [divine incarnation], are held to be especially significant for the individuals witnessing it and for the world, which is thereby blessed. Some ascribe the holiness of the day to the fact of its being the birthday of Shiva, as if Shiva has birth and death like any mortal. Some say that it commemorates the salvation attained by a hunter who sat on a bilva [Aegle Marmelos] tree on the lookout for animals to kill, and without any intention to worship, unknowingly dropped some of its leaves on a linga [symbol of Shiva] that lay beneath. This explanation does not make clear why this day is especially sacred.
Another story is that this is the day on which Shiva danced the Tandava [cosmic dance] in the ecstasy of His innate nature, with all the Gods and sages sharing and witnessing that cosmic consummation. When He consumed the halahal poison that threatened to destroy the universe, the heat of the fumes was well nigh unbearable, even for Him. So Ganga flowed uninterruptedly on His matted locks, but that gave Him only partial relief. The moon was placed on His head and that was of great help. Then, Shiva danced the Tandava [cosmic dance] with all the Gods and sages. All this happened on the same day, they say, and so Shivaratri [night of Shiva] is held in commemoration of this occasion.
We have not only the Mahashivaratri once a year; we have a Shivaratri every month dedicated to the worship of Shiva. Why is the ratri [night] so important? The moon dominates the night, and the moon has 16 kalas (fractions). One fraction is reduced each night during the dark fortnight until the entire moon is annihilated on new moon night. From then on, a fraction is added each night, until the moon is full circle on full moon night. The moon or chandra is the presiding deity of the mind; the mind waxes and wanes like the moon. It must be remembered that the chief aim of all sadhana [spiritual discipline] is to eliminate the mind and become amanaska [mindless]. Then only can maya [illusion] be rent asunder and the reality revealed.
During the dark fortnight of the month, sadhana has to be done to eliminate a fraction of the mind every day, along with each fraction of the moon. On the night of chaturdasi [14th day], the night of Shiva, only a fraction of the mind should remain. If some special effort is made that night, through more intensive and vigilant sadhana, like puja [worship] or japam [repeating God’s name] or dhyana [meditation], success is ensured. Shiva alone has to be meditated upon that night without the mind straying toward thoughts of sleep or food. This has to be done every month. Once a year, however, on Mahashivaratri a special spurt of spiritual activity is recommended, so that what is shavam (corpse) can become shivam [auspiciousness], by the perpetual awareness of its divine indweller.
This is the day dedicated to the Shiva that is in each of you. From the Himalayan ranges to Cape Kanyakumari [the northern and southern tips of India], the entire land is resounding today to the authentic declaration, “Shivoham, Shivoham, Shivoham” and to the adoration, “Om Namahshivaya.” Since thousands pray here and millions of people pray elsewhere, the linga is emanating from Me, so that you may derive the bliss that pervades the world through lingodbhava [creation of linga].
The manifestation of the linga is a part of My nature. Pundits [scholars] explain it as reminiscent of an epochal event in the past when Shiva challenged Brahma and Vishnu [from the Trinity] to gauge the height and depth of the linga form He assumed. They failed and had to accept defeat. But, the linga emerges as a result of prayer and grace.
You have to recognize in this event a glimpse of Divinity, is a sign of infinite grace. Just as Om is the sound symbol of God, the linga is the form symbol or the visible symbol of God, the symbol is the most meaningful, the simplest, and the least endowed with the appendages of attributes. Lingam means that in which this jagat (world) attains laya (mergence) or leeyathe (dissolution). All forms merge in the formless at last. Shiva is the principle of the destruction of all names and forms, of all entities and individuals. So, the linga is the simplest sign of emergence and mergence.
Every form conceived in the shastras has a deep significance. Shiva does not ride the animal called a bull. The bull is the symbol of stability standing on four legs sathya [truth], dharma [right action], shanti [peace], and prema [love]. Shiva is described as having three eyes that see the past, the present, and the future. The skin that forms His cloak is a symbol of the bestial primitive traits that His grace destroys. In fact, He tears them to pieces, skins them, and they become totally ineffective. His four faces symbolize shaantam (equanimity), roudram (terror), mangalam (grace), and utsaham (compassion). While adoring the lingam on this lingodbhava day, you must contemplate on these truths of Shiva that the linga represents.
It is not this night alone that you should spend in thoughts of Shiva; your whole life must be lived in the constant presence of the Lord. Endeavor that that is the main thing, the inescapable consummation for all mortals. Even those who deny God will have to tread the pilgrim road, melting their hearts in tears of travail. If you make the slightest effort to move along the path of your own liberation, the Lord will help you a hundred-fold. That is the hope that Mahashivaratri conveys to you.
Man is called so because he has the skill to do manana; this means inner meditation on the meaning and significance of what one has heard. But, you have not yet emerged out of the stage of shravanam or listening! All the joy you crave for is in you. However, like a man who has vast riches in the iron chest, but has no idea where the key is, you suffer. Hear the instructions properly, dwell upon them in the silence of meditation, practice what has been made clear therein. Then you can secure the key, open the chest, and be rich in joy.
You have given up even the little sadhana that Shivaratri demands. In olden times people would not put even a drop of water on their tongues on this day. Now that rigor is gone. They used to keep vigil throughout the entire night without a wink of sleep, repeating Om Namahshivaya without intermission. Now the name Shiva is on no-one’s tongue. But, those who deny God are only denying themselves and their glory.
All have love in them in some form or other, toward some one or other, or their work or goal. That love is God, a spark of the God in them. They have ananda [happiness]; however small or temporary, that is another spark of the divine. They have inner peace, detachment, discrimination, sympathy, and the spirit of service. These are divine in the mirror of their minds.
Resolve on this holy Shivaratri, in the presence of Shiva Sai, to visualize the Shiva as the inner power of all. With each breath, you assert “Soham,” “I am He;” [this refers to] not only you, but every being that breathes, every being that lives, everything that exists. It is a fact that you have ignored so long. Believe it from now on. When you watch your breath and meditate on that magnificent truth, slowly the He and the I (the sa and the aham) will draw nearer and closer, until the feeling of separateness will fade away, and the Soham will be transformed into Om, the pranava, the primal sound, the fundamental formula for God. That is the swaswarupa, the reality behind this “relative reality.”
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Feb. 1969
