Shivaratri, most significant of all Festivals
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On 12th febrauary 2010, Maharshivaratri(lord Shiva’s Birthday) is celebrated all over the world. Maha Shivratri or Maha Sivaratri or Shivaratri or Sivaratri (Night of Shiva or „Great Night of Shiva“) is a festival celebrated every year on the 13th night/14th day in the Krishna Paksha (waning moon) of the month of Maagha (as per Shalivahana or Gujarati Vikrama) or Phalguna (as per Vikrama) in the Hindu Calendar (that is, the night before and day of the new moon). The festival is principally celebrated by offerings of Bael (Bilva) leaves to the Lord Shiva, all day fasting and an all night long vigil. Ganja is traditionally used as an offering for Lord Shiva and his followers. Read More: > HERE <
Shivaratri — The most significant of all festivals
Shivaratri is celebrated every year with a lot of religious fervour and devotion. Devotees keep fast, make offerings on Shivaling and stay awake all night (jagarari) to get the blessings of God Shiva. Unknown to most of the devotees the festival of Shivaratri holds the mystery to something most crucial namely, how God liberates the entire humanity from sorrow and suffering.
Till this mystery is solved by God himself, Shivaratri is celebrated merely as an annual ritual sans its original significance and purpose. To truly celebrate Shivaratri it is vital to know as to who Shiva is and what the word ‘Ratri’ which means night has to do with Shiva. The Supreme Soul is one and souls are many. The Supreme Soul is the Creator and Director of the eternal World Drama and souls are the actors in it. By becoming pure souls can become a great soul (mahatma), religious soul (dharamatma) and a divine or deity soul (devatmd) but they cannot become Supreme Soul i.e. paramatma. Souls are the progeny and not a part of the Supreme Soul. God Shiva is the creator of all deities even Brahma, Vishnu and Shankar.
Devotees worship them as devtaya namaha (salutations to the lords or deities). In comparison, Shiva is always worshipped as Shiva Paramatmay Namaha (Salutations to God Shiva) and Om Namaha Shivay (I salute Shiva). Lord Rama and Lord Krishna are shown as worshipping God Shiva at Rameshwar and Gopeshwar respectively.
The light form of God Shiva has been idolized as jyotirlingam (pillar of light) in 12 famous jyotirlingam Shiva temples in India viz. in Kedarnath, Somnath and Mahakaleswar etc. The light form of God is worshipped in most of the faiths in the world. Interestingly, Shivaratri does not mean Shiva’s night. The festival commemorates God’s descent on earth to end the unlimited Ratri (night) of ignorance and suffering and to usher in the golden dawn of peace, harmony and happiness.
“ Feste und Fastentage im Hinduismus „
von SWAMI SIVANANDA, 25. Kapitel – Shivaratri
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Here Ratri connotes that critical juncture in eternal world drama cycle when unrighteousness reaches its extreme and all human efforts to redeem the situation fail. It’s a period of extreme sorrow and suffering when the vices (bad habbits) of ego, lust, anger and attachment rule human thoughts and actions.
In Hindu scriptures there is mention of the night of Brahma and also the night of the shaktis or goddesses (Navratris). The night of Brahma signifies the age of ignorance and unrighteousness in which God’s first and purest creation, Brahma and the Brahmins, are clouded by ignorance and vices. When God Shiva comes and opens their third eye of wisdom by bestowing divine intellect, they are able to forge a mental link with Him and draw His power. They thus become Shiva Shaktis who destroy ignorance and vices in the world with the help of Shiva. The Navratri (festival of nine nights) is a memorial of the end of the unlimited ratri in which devotees invoke the blessings of Shiva Shaktis and sing praise of their divine actions. It is at such a time when God intervenes to perform the divine acts of re-creating the new world order of purity, peace and prosperity and destroying the old worldorder of viciousness, violence and deprivation, as described in the Bhagavad Gita.
Just as night ends and day dawns when the sun rises, in the same way to end the night of ignorance God Shiva, the Sun of Knowledge (Gyan Surya) incarnates at the fag end of Kaliyuga, in Bharat.
This period of spiritual enlightenment is sailed Sangamyuga (Confluence Age) in which the most auspicious confluence of the Supreme Soul Shiva and human souls takes place. This is the most elevated period in human world when God incarnates in an ordinary man’s body and names him Prajapita Brahma through whom He reveals the most profound cnowledge about the Creator and His Creation. He reveals the supreme wisdom of Rajyoga which helps human beings absolve their sins and attain their original purity and perfection. That s why God Shiva is knowledgefull and patitpavan (purifier).
He is also the liberator and guide whose incarnation sets in process the destruction of the unrighteous iron-aged world – the present Kaliyuga – and consequently the liberation of ill souls from sin and suffering. God Shiva guides all souls to the land of liberation – the souls world where freed from their bondages they live in peace and silence. Thus He is also called Mahakaal (the great death or the eternal time) whose advent signals the return of everything in Creation to its original state.
This purification leads to the creation of a new pure world order Satyuga. It is the time on the world drama cycle (Srishti Chakra) which is remembered as Paradise, Heaven, Vaikunth, or Swarg where complete purity, peace and prosperity prevailed.
That is why the supreme Father of all souls is called the Creator and Shiva, which means the benefactor of all, who does good to every soul by incarnating in this world.
And the happiest news is that this golden key which opens the gates of the Golden age, Satyuga or Paradise is being given right now by Supreme Soul God Shiva himself to His spiritual children who have recognized His incognito incarnation in the human medium of Adi Dev Prajapita Brahma.
It is now that we have to awaken the soul (jagarari) and stay in the remembrance of God Shiva (up-vas means to stay close) take the oath of celibacy, sacrifice the bitterness of vices (bad habbits) on Shiva, and let the divine knowledge of Shiva flow drop by drop to all souls.
By adopting this true method of celebrating Shivaratri we should claim the greatest blessing mukthi , liberation in life, from God Shiva in this birth.
The Shiva Sutras (IAST: śivas… See MoreūtrÄṇi; DevanÄgarÄ: शिवसूत्राणि) or Maheshvara Sutras (DevanÄgarÄ: महेश्वराणि सूत्राणि) are fourteen verses that organize the phonemes of the Sanskrit language as referred to in the AṣṭÄdhyÄyÄ of PÄṇini, the foundational text of Sanskrit grammar. Within the tradition they are known as the akṣarasamÄmnÄya, „recitation of phonemes,“ but they are popularly known as the Shiva Sutras because they are said to have been revealed to PÄṇini by Shiva (also known as Maheshvara). They were either composed by PÄṇini to accompany his AṣṭÄdhyÄyÄ or predate him. The latter is less plausible, but the practice of encoding complex rules in short, mnemonic verses is typical of the sutra style.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Sutra
PÄṇini (DÄvanÄgarÄ: पाणिनि; a patronymic meaning „descendant of Paṇi“) was an Ancient Indian Sanskrit grammarian from Pushkalavati, Gandhara (fl. 4th century BCE).
He is known for his Sanskrit grammar, particularly for his formulation of the 3,959 rules[2] of Sanskrit morphology in the grammar known as Ashtadhyayi (अष्टाध्यायी AṣṭÄdhyÄyÄ, meaning „eight chapters“), the foundational text of the grammatical branch of the Vedanga, the auxiliary scholarly disciplines of Vedic religion.
The Ashtadhyayi is one of the earliest known grammars of Sanskrit, although he refers to previous texts like the Unadisutra, Dhatupatha, and Ganapatha.
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