Shivaratri: A Day Worth Celebrating

It hasn't been much time since we celebrated Shivratri. Every year many of us celebrate the beautiful eve. As much as the eve is charming, the story and the meaning behind it is much more pleasing.

Blissful scenery of Shivratri, Source: Wikimedia

For believers, Shivratri is a magical night. Shiva bestows his grace on this night through the cosmic dance of fusion between Shiva and Shakti, which leads to evolution and transformation.

Shiva is the omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent primal atman. Shiva denotes auspiciousness, prosperity, graciousness, benignity, kindness, benevolence, and friendliness.

Paramshiv is Parabrahmn, the ultimate reality, the one form from whence all emanates, according to Kashmir Shaivism. Paramshiv manifests himself through a 36-tattva descent process from Paramshiv to the jiva. On Shivratri, Paramshiv's vivid creative force, known as spanda, propels him to manifest these 36 tattvas as Leela, divine play.

On this day, Shiva-Shakti, luminous consciousness, and awareness are revered and worshipped. The five pure tattvas are the initial, creative, motionless Absolute; the energy Bindu tattva, which polarises consciousness 'I' and 'this,' subject and object; the Sadakhya tattva, which is responsible for the appearance of aham, self; the Ishvara tattva, in which you realize 'this universe is my expansion'; and the fifth, Sadvidya when Purusha realizes that You may be aware of it at times, and other times you're not.

The soul's freedom is aided by seven pure-impure tattvas who act as tools. The five kanchukas, or cloaks, that prevent the subject from recognizing the divine character of the Universe are Purusha and Maya tattvas; time, knowledge, desire, causation, and is limited.

Purusha and Prakriti tattvas, tamas and rajas tattvas, five sense organs, five karmendriya, motor organs, five sensations, and five physical elements are among the 24 impure tattvas. The first thing to emerge from Prakriti is the buddhi. It thereafter devolves into ahamkara. The manas, or sensory mind, then experiences the outward sense of self, which evolves to the lowest tattva.

A fresh cycle of creation begins on the auspicious night of Shivratri. Shiva and Shakti, the two sources of light, merge through the 36 tattvas to give birth to universal consciousness. The Universe is nothing more than a proliferation, penetrated with Shakti, the divine presence, on every level. Shiva is the unmanifest Absolute, who is supreme, non-evolving, undifferentiated, and unchanging. Both the manifest and unmanifest Absolute are His creative energies, and hence inseparable. There is no matter in the ocean of consciousness, only spanda, vibrations, or waveforms, according to quantum physics. The Universe is made up of vibrating waves. At the highest level of creation, the Shiva-Shakti tattvas, the cyclic movement of internalization and externalization happens within consciousness. The heartbeat of the divine is the visible universe that arises from the spanda or subtle variations.

Maya or ignorance has veiled the fact that all souls are one with Paramshiv, the Absolute Consciousness. However, knowledge allows us to recognize our divine nature and become emancipated, and Shivratri is the perfect opportunity to do so.

The Primal Atman- Shiva; Source: iStockImages