Today is Mahashivratri

Mahashivratri is one of the very important festival of India, it is also called as the night of Lord Shiva, who is considered to be the destroyer. So some people call him the Lord of Destruction, whereas some call him the Lord of Creation, because only when he destroys a new creation takes place. Shiva is considered to be a task master, he is considered to be benevolent and at the same time a tough task master also. The Shiv Ling which is a symbol of Lord Shiva is considered to be the union of masculine and feminine energies and binds all the elements of nature together. It is a connection between the mind and matter, as we say the consciousness and the physical matter. I have been following Sadhguru for quite some time and he is one of the biggest devotee of Lord Shiva, he says that if you want any material things in life, you must avoid praying to Shiva unless you are prepared to go through a tough test, because Shiva will not give you anything so easily. You will get it but with a lot of perseverance.

There are some myths behind the worship of Shiv Ling and Lord Shiva. The mythology says that Shiva had a curse on him, once when he was in deep meditation, he was visited by another God and since he did not respond in that state, he was cursed that people will worship the Linga and not him. Whereas some of the scriptures say that the Shiv Ling represents Lord Shiva in a formless and infinite nature and hence the Shiv Ling is worshipped.

In terms of celebrations, tonight the biggest celebration of this festival will happen in Coimbatore city in India, where there is the Isha Foundation of Sadhguru. Here we also see one of the biggest statue of Lord Shiva and one of the biggest Shiv Ling also at the Isha center. This celebration is conducted by Sadhguru himself and thousands of people attend it every year. The celebration goes on for full night. It is said that on this day one must fast and at night one must meditate sitting up straight and absorb the energies of the Universe. It is considered to be a night of high energy. It is the night before the new moon in the 12th month of the Hindu calendar and it also marks the onset of the spring season. In the olden times there were no calendars and the time was observed with the cycles of the moon and seasons. That is the reason why all the 12 full moons have different names as per the seasons.

Some years back I visited Isha center and stayed there for a couple of days, it was one of the best experience of my life, and at that time I could visit the Shiva statue and also had an opportunity to meditate at the Shiv ling. That place is also called the Dhyanalinga. The energy of this place is magical, once you enter in, you do not feel like getting out of that place.

Back in India, just behind my home is one of the biggest temple of Lord Shiva, called Babulnath Temple. Not thousands but lakhs of people visit on this day to the temple, there is a very long queue at any given hour, people come before midnight the previous day and stand in the queue. When I was back home, I also would visit, it would take me somewhere 4 to 5 hours in the queue before getting to worship. This festival is not a part of my religion and culture, but since the temple is just behind my home, everyday I can hear the holy chants and bells from the Temple and somewhere I have developed this connection with it and I feel like being a part of it.

Today I am here in Muscat, but I will still visit the Temple in the evening and do the meditation.

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