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MAHASHIVARATRI
On the 14th day of the
dark half of Magh the great night of Shiva is celebrated. On this day the
devotees of Shiva observe fast.
Once a hunter set out for a hunt. He came near a pond, and for the purpose of
hunting he climbed a “bel” tree (sacred to Shiva). Sitting on a branch he
waited for game. But since the leaves obstructed his vision, he began to
pluck a few leaves, which by chance fell on a Shiva Linga (“pindi”), which
happened to be under that tree. Then a herd of deer came to drink water. The
hunter took aim at a hind (female deer). But as she noticed the movement of
the hunter, she cried out, “Please, wait a moment, before you shoot let me go
home and meet my young ones for the last time. Afterwards you may take my
life at your pleasure.”
The hunter gave the hind permission to go home, and re-mained sitting on the
tree waiting for her to return. Waiting the whole night he was forced to
observe fast. On the Shiva Linga he had inadvertently offered the “bel”
leaves. With his mouth he uttered the name of Shiva, thus he fulfilled the
conditions needed for the observance of the Maha Shiva Ratra vow. So without
knowing how, his heart was changed and he was filled with sentiments of
mercy.
Before dawn the mother deer came back with the entire herd. “Now you may take
my life at your pleasure,” she said. Seeing the hind’s honesty the hunter’s
heart was further softened, and he completely gave up his thought of killing
the hind. Shankar was so pleased that immediately making all of them sit in a
plane he took them to heaven. Both the hind and the hunter can be seen at
night in the sky among the stars in the constellation of Orion (“Mrugshirsh
nakshatra”).
Shiva the “Great God”
“It is probable that, long before the arrival of the Aryans, the ‘great god’
(‘Mahadeva’ or ‘Maheshvara’) was wor-shipped in India.” Mount Kailas in the
Himalayas is the abode of Shiva. “The Ganges came down from the heavens
because Shiva bore on the matted locks of his head the forceful impact of her
falling torrents.”
“He creates and destroys, he sustains the world, he at times obscures by his
power of illusion (maya), or offers grace to the suffering world. These are
the fivefold activities of Siva, symbolised by the five faces of the god
(Pancanana). He sees the past, the present and the future by means of his
three eyes (Trilocana). To save the earth, he drank the poison and his throat
became dark-blue (Nilakantha). A moon’s crescent round or above his central
eye (Candrasekhara), clad like an ascetic with a tiger-skin, he holds a
trident (Pinaka) in his hand; he rides the bull Nandi. Some of his images
represent him as a four-armed person-age, two of the hands holding a
battle-axe (khadga) and a deer, the two other hands in poses signifying
assurance of safety and liberality; in some other representations, he carries
a bow, a thunderbolt, an axe, a skull-capped staff, a drum.”
Shiva’s family is composed of his wife Uma (Sakti) and their two sons Ganesh
and Kartikeya (Subrahmanya). Their respective mounts are the bull, the lion,
the mouse and the peacock.
Male and Female
“In the full figure of Siva the male and female principles are united, and he
himself is said to be half man and half woman. The emblem under which he
particularly delights to be worshipped is the lingam or phallus, which is
always erect. Lingam and yoni (the female organ) represent the totality of
his nature and the totality of all created exist-ence.”
“Despite the fact that he (Siva) was later to inspire the tender love among
his devotees, he remains a mysterium tremendum et fascinosum: he terrifies
and he fascinates. Unlike Vishnu and his incarnations there is little that is
human about him; he transcends humanity, and the vio-lence of the
contradictions that he subsumes into himself gives him a sublimity and a
mystery that no purely anthro-pomorphic figure could evoke. The Saktas of a
later time sought to realize in themselves the perfect union of the male and
female principles in the one by combining the strictest control of the senses
with the sexual act itself. A man and a woman, representing Siva and his Sakti,
would be in close embrace but with the senses under such perfect control that
no seminal discharge took place. Thus, it was claimed, the complete fusion of
the male and female principles of Purusha and Prakrti, was realized in the
One and indivis-ible Siva who, though ever chaste. In this close embrace
which imitates the inseparable unity of Siva and Sakti, there is no
distinction between liberation and creativity, between moksha and samsara,
because the opposites are felt to have been transcended. The close union of
the sexes is thus the most perfect representation in the sansaric world of
the divine transcendence of all oppo-sites.”
Shiva Linga
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The
stone in its spherical form untouched by the sculptor, is the form nearest to
the formless. And the sexual union of male and female is the farthest the
human mind can reach to express the creative action of God. This action, as
God Himself, remains a mystery to man. All that man can do is to look at
nature and see how a new being comes into existence. Since nature is the work
of God, it is logical to conclude that both the male and the female
principles must be found in God Himself, the sexes being only a manifestation
of God’s nature. At the level of symbolism, the Shiva Linga or the stone with
the semi-spherical top, makes a positive contribution in man’s effort to
express the Divine Mystery. Nilakantha
The demons and the celestials agreed to churn the ocean of milk. Mount Sumeru
was the churning staff, the snake Vasuki the churning rope. They wanted to
get ambrosia. But when they were about to get the desired nectar, poison came
from the mouth of the snake. Frightened the gods and the demons ran away.
They had recourse to Shiva, the Great God. Shiva out of compassion swal-lowed
the deadly poison, which remained as a blue stain on his throat. Hence the
name Nilakantha. Saved from the danger the Devas and Asuras resumed churning
the ocean and shared the ambrosia that was obtained.
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