What Does Shivarathri Teach Us.?

[Guest guest]

of this Sunday Special that comes to you along with the daily Sai Inspires.

Sivarathri is a festival connected with the Moon and the Mind. As we all know,

during the month the Moon waxes and wanes, taking 15 days for each process.

The thirteenth day after the New Moon and the Full Moon is called Triyodasi.

After Triyodasi comes Chaturdasi or the fourteenth day. Sivarathri commences at

the end of Triyodasi and the beginning of Chaturdasi, just before the New Moon.

Swami says that on this night the Moon is hardly visible. Such a barely-visible

Moon represents the Mind of a true seeker. Through Sadhana such a seeker has

almost conquered the Mind. And just as the Moon disappears shortly after

Chaturdasi, the seeker, with a little extra effort, can completely extinguish

the Mind, that is to say, master it. As Swami puts it so simply: master the

Mind and become a Master Mind! The Moon waxes and wanes once every month.

Thus, there must be one Sivarathri every month. However, only one of these is

considered particularly sacred and that particular Sivarathri is called Maha

Sivarathri. Today is Maha Sivarathri. There is a legend connected with this but

we shall not go into that. Suffices to say that the legend is connected with the

realisation that God has neither a beginning nor an end; He is timeless and

eternal. While most festivals involve a certain amount of merry making,

Sivarathri is a sombre affair – no wonder, for one is attempting to fully

conquer the Mind and quell its random and purposeless wanderings. Right from

the beginning, Sivarathri in Prashanti Nilayam has always been very special.

Apart from the fact that by coming here one has the opportunity to observe the

all-night

vigil in the presence of Siva in human form, Swami used to perform in the old

days the spectacular Vibhuti Abhishekam and also the equally memorable

Lingodbhavam. As for Vibhuti Abhishekam, Swami stopped a long time ago. The

Lingodbhavam too was stopped for many years but revived few years ago. Last

year, that is in 2005, Swami announced that there would be no Lingodbhavam. We

don’t know what Divine dispensation would be this year. Even though these

incredible demonstrations of Swami’s Divine Power have stopped, we still need

to understand the inner significance of both the Vibhuti Abhishekam and the

Lingodbhavam. Let us start with the former. Why did Swami perform the

Vibhuthi Abhishekam? Ordinary mortals perform Abhishekam to idols by way of

propitiating the Divine. But does

the Divine have to propitiate anyone? Clearly not. Then why the Abhishekam?

Swami performed the Abhishekam partly to draw attention to His Divine Powers

and partly for reminding devotees of the significance of Vibhuthi. Vibhuthi

is sacred ash. Ash is produced when things are burnt but ash itself cannot be

burnt; it is thus a kind of end-point. In Spirituality, a human being reaches

an end-point when all desires are burnt away; what remains then is Purity.

Vibhuthi is thus the symbol of the Ultimate Purity that all humans must strive

to achieve. Turning next to the famous Lingodbhavam, this is an occasion

when Baba reveals Himself as the Supreme Creator via Lingodhbhavam, during

which a Lingam emanates from Him. In earlier times, the Lingam that emanated

from Swami used to be of crystal etc. These days, however, the Lingam is of

pure gold, shining with incredible lustre. Can anyone have so much gold

inside one’s body? Wherefrom does all that gold come? Swami says that the gold

forms in Him from the five elements present in subtle form. Initially, the gold

exists inside as liquid or molten gold. For gold to exist in the liquid state,

it must be at very a high temperature. At such temperatures, the stomach of

normal mortals would be completely burnt but not so in the case of the Avatar.

 

0in 19.75pt 0pt 0in; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"> Just as a mother has to undergo

birth pangs, Swami undergoes severe physical discomfort in order to manifest

the Lingam so that man may realise that behind Creation there IS a Creator who

is Supreme. It is this Supreme One alone who can grant permanent Bliss, and man

must strive to achieve Purity because that is the only gateway to God and Bliss.

Wherever we are,

this is what we must remember on this day/night. Firstly, we all have come from

the Creator and thus are born as the Embodiments of Divine Purity. That is what

Lingodbhavam really ought to call to our Mind. Secondly, though we start off

pure – as Swami says, children are always pure, at least at start – desires

soon invade us and contaminate the Mind as much as possible. However, we must

resist this and try to purify the Mind by burning the desires, and Vibhuti or

sacred ash is the symbol of this ultimate burning of desires. Vibhuti

Abhishekam thus ought to remind us of the need to first limit desires and then

burn them entirely. We might miss observing other functions but Sivarathri

must be taken very seriously because it is all about becoming Pure and then

truly become one with God.

Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;

mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">We thank you for the

privilege of sharing these thoughts to you. Jai Sai

Ram With Love and Regards, "Heart2Heart" RadioSai's e-Journal Team,Ram

ChuganiKobe, Japanrgcjp

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