Namaste. Friends, here is a lovely article ( sent to me by a good friend ) Hope you may like reading it. thanks.
love+peace+service
c. m. yogi
Dear Divine Souls ,
I hope that -- by God's grace -- this finds you all in the best of
health and happiness at this sacred time. On the 26th February we will
celebrate Maha Shivaratri, one of the holiest nights of the year.
SHIVA AS DESTROYER
In the trinity of the Divine Manifestation Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva Lord
Shiva is the one who destroys that which is old and impure in order to
make room for a new creation of that which is pure and divine. Lord
Shiva annihilates our egos, our attachments and our ignorance. Many fear
Lord Shiva’s destructive capacity, and yet it is destruction for the
purpose of regeneration. Without death, life cannot begin anew. Without
the annihilation of old habits, attachments and ego, we cannot progress
toward the goal of God realization. Unless our vessel has been emptied
of all that is old, negative and impure, it cannot be filled with divine
qualities.
There is a beautiful story of a man, a spiritual seeker who was eagerly
in search of enlightenment. He had performed many years of sadhana and
study and felt that he was ready for the final 'touch'. Thus, he went
out in search of the Guru who could grant him true enlightenment.
Everyone told the man that high on top of a certain mountain lived an
enlightened master who could bestow enlightenment upon his disciples and
devotees. The seeker traveled weeks on foot to reach the Master in his
cave on the mountain top. Upon arrival he fell down at the Master's feet
and proclaimed his earnest wish for enlightenment. The seeker proceeded
to tell the Master of all the sadhana he had done, that which he had
learned, that which he had experienced and that which he felt he still
needed to obtain.
The Master listened silently. When the seeker finally finished his long
explanation of his own spiritual experiences, the Master said, "Let us
have a cup of tea." The seeker looked shocked, "A cup of tea??" he
exclaimed. "I've practiced for years, meditated for years, searched for
months and walked for weeks in order to reach you so I could finally be
granted enlightenment. I do not want a cup of tea. I want to be
liberated!"
However, the Master calmly insisted that he first have a cup of tea. The
Master placed a cup on the ground, next to the seeker, and began to pour
hot tea from the kettle into the cup. When the tea reached the rim of
the cup, the Master did not stop pouring. Rather, he kept pouring and
pouring, even as the tea filled the cup and began to flow over the sides
of the cup, out of the saucer and onto the floor of his cave. The seeker
jumped up as the hot tea touched his knees. "Stop," he cried. "The cup
is full. It cannot hold any more. Please stop pouring tea. It is all
going to waste all over the floor."
The Master sat down and said to the seeker: "You are like this tea cup.
You are so full of what you think you know, what you think you've
achieved, what you think you've seen and what you think you need, that
there is no room for me to teach you anything. Until you empty yourself
of your own ego and your own illusions, my teachings will only go to
waste like this tea on the floor."
Lord Shiva empties our cup of that to which we are attached, so that we
may be re-filled with true awareness, true knowledge, true Divine light.
Thus, it is not destruction for destruction's sake. It is destruction
for the sake of re-creation.
CELEBRATION OF MAHA SHIVRATRI
The holiday of Shivratri is frequently celebrated by performing special
Shiva puja and Abhishek as well as by remaining awake at night in
meditation, kirtan and japa. During the course of the night, the
Abhishek can be performed every three hours with water, milk, yogurt,
honey, etc. Bel (bilva) leaves are frequently offered during Shiva
puja, as it is believed that Maha Lakshmi resides within them, and it is
considered particularly auspicious to offer them on this occasion.
It is said that the offering of Bel leaves on the occasion of Shivratri
is so auspicious that even one who offers them unknowingly (as in the
case of the hunter Suswara) will attain liberation.
THE MEANING OF ASH
Shiva is portrayed with ash on his forehead, and devotees of
Lord Shiva frequently apply sacred ash to various parts of their body.
This symbolizes two things. Everything that today has a form on the
Earth once was ash in the ground and again will be reduced to nothing
but ash. Therefore, the ash serves to remind us that all that we are,
all that we do, all that we earn and acquire will only be reduced to
ash one day, and therefore we should live our lives dedicated to God and
dedicated to serving humanity, rather than to the accumulation of
temporary possessions and comfort. When we apply the sacred ash or see
it, we are reminded Ah yes, it is only by the grace of God that I
am still here today, and that I have not yet been turned to ash. It is
His grace that my home, my family and my possessions are still with me
and that they have not become ash. Therefore, I should remember Him,
pray to Him and devote myself to Him.
LORD SHIVA AS THE "MAHA DEVA" - SWALLOWING THE POISON
The stories and the messages of Bhagwan Shiva are innumerable; however,
one of the most important is the story of how He for the sake of
humanity swallowed the poison which emerged from the ocean.
The story says that the devas and their brothers, the demons, were
churning the ocean together in search of the pot of the nectar of
immortality. However, after a great deal of effort, what emerged was
not nectar, but poison!! This happens frequently in life as well. When
we embark upon a divine plan or when we undertake a noble challenge,
frequently before the success comes, before our effort bears fruit, we
face failure or condemnation or seemingly insurmountable hurdles. Yet,
we must never give up.
The devas and demons knew that in order to continue churning, and
ultimately to unearth the Divine nectar, they could not simply toss the
poison aside. Someone had to drink it. But, naturally, no one was
willing to drink the poison. Everyone had some excuse for why he or she
was too valuable to be sacrificed. Finally, Bhagwan Shiva came forward,
very calmly and with serene poise. He said I will drink the poison if it
will preserve peace in the family and enable my brothers and sisters to
attain the nectar of immortality.
After drinking the poison, and thereby enabling the churning to
continue, Bhagwan Shiva held the poison in his throat hence the name
Neelkanth which means Blue Throat and sat peacefully in meditation for
eternity.
HOW TO DEAL WITH THE POISON IN OUR OWN LIVES
In our lives, in our families, so much poison emerges between parents
and children, between husband and wife, between in-laws. We wait and
wait for the divine nectar to emerge, but it seems that only poison
comes. So many times people come to me, complaining, But why should I
always be the one to compromise? Why should I always be the one to
sacrifice? Why should I always say Im sorry? Its not fair!
On this night of Shivratri, as we worship Bhagwan Shiva, it is also the
night that we must pray for the strength to take his message to heart!
Let us not only worship him, but let us emulate him. He who is willing
to peacefully swallow the poison, he who is willing to sacrifice for the
family, for the community and for humanity is the true Mahadeva.
Bhagwan Shiva went to the Himalayas, to the land now called Neelkanth to
meditate after he drank the poison. The message is that when poison
emerges in the home, when poison emerges anywhere in our lives, when we
feel like if we swallow it we will die, but if we dont drink it then the
fight will continue the secret is to meditate! You dont have to go to
the Himalayas. Just create your own Himalayas. Wherever you are. First,
be the one to accept the poison. Be the one to sacrifice, apologize and
concede humbly. Then go, sit and meditate peacefully. This is not
weakness, but strength.
Poison always comes; obstacles always come. When we work for good
causes, when we embark upon divine work, the poison always comes before
the nectar. However, we must never get discouraged. We must never give
up. If the devas and demons had forfeited the churning at the sign of
poison, the nectar of immortality would never have emerged, and it would
have been a tragedy for the world. Similarly, we must always have faith
that the nectar WILL come. It is only a matter of time. We must be
willing to churn and churn, no matter what comes be it poison or nectar.
On the night of Shivratri as we remember the churning between the devas
and demons for the nectar of immortality, we must take anoter lesson to
heart. After the nectar emerged, the demons tried to abscond with it.
Thus they would be ever more powerful and ever more able to destroy
their brothers, the devas. However, through a series of divine
interventions, the devas emerged the victors and the ones with the gift
of immortality.
The night of Shivratri is especially auspicious for winning this same
battle within ourselves, the battle between good and evil, between right
and wrong, between poison and nectar, between death and immortality. Let
us use our prayers, our meditations on this night to pray for
divine intervention so that within ourselves the good might vanquish the
evil, the nectar within us might emerge, rather than poison, and that we
too may be carried from death to immortality.
May God bless you all and all of your families.
With love and blessings.
In the service of God and humanity,
Swami Chidanand Saraswati
kotharivasant [at] hotmail [dot] com