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What is Maha Shivaratri Festival?
February 24, 2021
Maha Shivaratri is an annual festival worshipping Shiva, one of the most powerful Gods in Hinduism, and one among the Holy Trinity, alongside Brahma and Vishnu. He is perceived as the Supreme Being in Shaivism. ‘Maha’ means great. ‘Shiv’ refers to Shiva, and ‘Ratri’ is night. Lord Shiva is also known as Mahadev (The Great God).
Maha Shivaratri occurs once a year on the 14th night of Chaturdashi Thithi during the Krishna Paksha (dark fortnight of the waning moon) in the month of Phalguna (Falgun). This year, Maha Shivaratri 2021 falls on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Hindus across the world celebrate this festival with great zeal and devotion. They offer prayers, perform pooja, and observe fasting.
The 14th night of every lunar month, during Krishna Paksha (waning phase of the moon), is Shivaratri. The moon loses its brilliance and becomes weak. This is a dark fortnight. Shivaratri is believed to be the darkest night. We generally perceive darkness to be ignorance or evil, while light signifies knowledge or goodness. However, Shiva is ‘that which is not’. We all see creation – ‘that which is,’ having a form. Shiva represents the vast darkness or the emptiness. Light has a beginning and end. However, darkness has no source. It is all-enveloping. Shiva is omnipresent and pervading. In this context, we celebrate the darkest night, Maha Shivaratri, which holds the highest significance.
Maha Shivaratri is a festival with a difference. While most festivals celebrate victory in some form and mark agricultural events too, Shivaratri 2021 is different in perception. This is a self-realization festival, looking within oneself, of introspection, practicing Yoga, meditation, and fasting. Hindu festivals are mostly celebrated during the day, whereas Maha Shivaratri is celebrated at night. Devotees maintain a vigil all night and offer prayers and pooja. Penance is observed to attain Moksha (liberation). These practices help humans, control, and keep in check emotions and negative thoughts, and retreat from worldly pleasures.
While normal minds may consider darkness as evil, the spiritually inclined perceive it as Divine. According to Yogis, Shiva is the Adi Guru (teacher), and all divine knowledge emanates from him. Shiva is the Mahadev – the Supreme power, destroyer, and the most compassionate. Maha Shivaratri allows a spiritual seeker to understand and experience the vast emptiness, the source of creation.
Maha Shivaratri is believed to be the darkest night. It is a festival for honoring and revering Shiva. It is a time to look within oneself. Devotees offer prayers and do meditation. They focus on ethics and virtues, honesty, forgiveness, being charitable towards others, and not harm anyone, to seek forgiveness from Shiva. It is a time for social harmony and to practice austerity. It is the time to celebrate Mahadev as the greatest of givers, because of his compassion. It changes negative energy, shifts towards positive thinking and vibes, and brings more positivity to the environment. It focuses on attaining inner peace and elevates spiritual energy and spiritual consciousness. It is a night when the energies within surge forward and devotees experience a spiritual peak. It helps realize the oneness of existence.
Maha Shivaratri is a celebration of Shiva, the Supreme Being of Shaivism. He is known as the Adi Yogi, from whom the science of Yoga emanated. Shiva teaches about self-transformation. He is a great ascetic, abstaining from all forms of pleasure, focusing on meditation as the path to self-realization and happiness. He is the Dark One, the lord of the elements – earth, fire, water, air, and space. Shiva allows us from being an individual, to transcend the human self and become one with the cosmic mechanism, to become one with the universe.
Devotees seek to perceive beyond the surface reality. They enhance the vision that can see the biggest presence lying in a vast emptiness, ‘that which is not’, Shiva. Devotees experience the all-pervading nature of the Divine, that which is omnipresent. Maha Shivaratri is beyond the celebration of a festival, as it helps us look beyond our limitations and experience that emptiness that is the source of creation. Shiva is timeless, without form, the Atman (soul) of the universe. It is a night of receiving blessings. It is a time to honor and celebrate Shiva.
