Today is the auspicious day of Shivaratri. ‘Shiva’ means causeless auspiciousness, ‘ratri’ means night. Shiva is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is also known as Mahadeva (Lord of all Lords – the ultimate Divine Cosmic Consciousness). The Cosmic Consciousness is reasonless, continuous auspiciousness; it is Nithya Mangalatva (eternal auspiciousness) without any reason, causelessly. Hence, Shiva is considered as the supreme being within Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hinduism.
According to the Vedic scriptures, this is the night Shiva, appeared as the ultimate light shaft in Arunachala, a sacred hill in Thiruvannamalai. Mahadeva assumed the formless form of light to bless the planet earth. On this very night, the possibility of awakening from all illusions opens. The Hindus celebrate this festival as the night of awakening where a seeker experiences an intense Kundalini (inner potential energy) awakening – the energy of infinite possibilities which is present in every being but it remains dormant in most of the human beings at the base of the spine. Seekers gather to do tapas (penance) such as fasting and offering various rituals on this day to experience ‘Shivoham’ (I am Shiva) – the state, space, powers, being and consciousness of Shiva.
In Hinduism, Mahadeva is known to perform these five aspects of Universe – creation (Satyojata), giving sustenance (Tatpurusha), destruction (Aghora), delusion (Vamadeva) and liberation (Ishana). He is known as “The Destroyer” within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity that includes Brahma and Vishnu. In Shaivism tradition, Shiva is the supreme being who creates, protects and transforms the universe. The highest form of Shiva is formless, limitless, transcendent and unchanging absolute Brahman and the primal Atman (soul, self) of the universe. Shiva is also known as Adi yogi Shiva, regarded as the patron god of yoga and enlightenment.
On this auspicious day, I like to share a big click that I learned from my Guru, Bhagawan Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam (fondly known as Swamiji) on the deeper truth about the actions of destruction and delusion. See, most human beings tend to view destruction as negative, something to be avoided in life. But the truth is it is only with destruction of the negativity and powerlessness, renewal is possible. He gave this powerful cognition – whenever you fall in a destructive mood such as anger, violence or frustration, look in and ask yourself “Are you behaving responsibly?”. The moment you bring responsibility into your cognition and if you feel responsible and destroy, it will always be the things needed to be destroyed. You will never destroy what should not be destroyed. You will always destroy what need to be destroyed immediately for renewal to unfold. With responsibility, any destruction will be equivalent to rejuvenation, not just destruction. You simply become Rudra – the ferocious form of Shiva in destruction. However, it is only when people are irresponsible which leads to tantrum throwing rioting destruction.
Whenever you are in the mood of delusion i.e. feeling confused and depressed, it means you have built a mind and life strictly focused on you which is stinking and rotten. Depression is like a 99% rotten vegetable, you simply have to discard it. The right solution to get out of delusion is to forget about you, start living for others by enriching others. The only way to get rid of depression is shift your centre to others and start bringing enriching in your life – enriching people with spiritual truths or your experiences.
In short, the more we are able to handle the destructive and delusory moods in us, the more we are established in Shivoham. Remember, everything in life is Shivam – causeless auspciciousness, even destruction and delusion are opportunities for us to raise our consciousness. Namaste 😀