Mahashivaratra
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. |
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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
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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Twelve Jyotirlingas
The Shiva Linga is the most common object of worship all over India. But twelve
such stones are considered more important and are known as Jyotirlinga. They are
situated in the following places:
Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh
Rameshwar in Tamil Nadu
Bhimashankar in Daminyal near Pune in
Maharashtra
Mahakaleshwar in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh
Somanath in Saurashtra
Nageshwar in Dwarka
Mallika1 in Uttar Pradesh,
Kedarnath in the Himalayas,
Dhushmeshwar in Ellora near Aurangabad
Trimbakeshwar near Nashik
Vishvanath in Benares and
Vaidyanath in Parli in Marathvada.