The 14th day of every month or the day before the New Moon which is the darkest night in the lunar month, is known as Shivarathri. Among all the 12 Shivarathris in a year Mahashivarathri is the most powerful one. On this day the planetary positions, especially in the northern hemisphere, are such there is a natural upsurge of energies in the human system.
In the yogic tradition, Shiva is not worshipped as a God but considered as the Adi Guru, the first Guru from whom the knowledge originated. For the ascetics that is the day he became one with the Kailash; he became like a mountain - still, absolutely still. After many millennia in meditation, one day he became absolutely still; that day is Mahashivarathri. All movement in him stopped and he became utterly still, so ascetics see Mahashivarathri as the day of stillness.
Shiva has always been referred to as Triambaka in so many ways because he has a third eye. The third eye is the eye of vision. These two eyes are sensory organs; they feed the mind with all nonsense because what you see is not the truth. You see this person, think something about him; if you see that person it is something about him, but you are not able to see the Shiva in him. These two eyes don’t see the truth so another eye, an eye of deeper penetration, has to be opened up. In this country, in this tradition, knowing doesn’t mean reading books, knowing doesn’t mean listening to someone, knowing doesn’t mean getting information from here and there. Knowing means opening up a new vision into life. So true knowing means your third eye has to open up. If your third eye is not opened then there is no way you can see Shiva. So this day, the Mahashivarathri day, that possibility, nature is bringing it close. Everyday it is possible; it is not that you will have to wait for this day. But this day nature offers it to you easily.
One of the prescriptions for today is you do not lie down in horizontal positions; remain in a vertical position. Remaining vertical alone is not sufficient; we will have to be in such position where we are not ourselves. Allow him to be; you are not. Shiva means ‘that which is not’. If you become like that the possibility of opening up new vision into life, looking at life with clarity is possible.
Any amount of thinking, any amount of philosophising, will not bring clarity into your mind. Only when vision opens, only then there is clarity. Nobody, no situation, can distort this clarity within you. But the logical clarity you create, anybody can distort it. So today is an opportunity for you to become a “Triambaka”, for you to open your third eye.
Mahashivarathri is very significant for people who are in the spiritual process, it is also very significant for people who are in family situations, and it is also very significant for the ambitious in the world. By people who live in family situations, Mahashivarathri is worshiped as Shiva’s wedding anniversary. For the ascetics that is the day he became one with the Kailash, because he became like a mountain - still, absolutely still. And the ambitious of the world see that day as the day Shiva conquered all his enemies.
Now, why are this day and this night held in so much importance in yogic traditions? Modern science has gone through many phases and arrived at a point today where they’re out to prove to you that everything that you know as life, everything that you know as matter and existence, everything that you know as the cosmos, as galaxies, it is all just one energy manifesting itself in millions and millions of ways. This reality is an experiential reality in every yogi; the word “yogi” means just that. As you know, the word “yoga” means union. The word “yogi” means one who has known the oneness of existence.
When I say “yoga,” I’m not referring to any one particular practice or system; all longing to know the unbounded, all longing to know the oneness in the existence is yoga. This night offers one such
opportunity to experience this. The sages and seers of the past recognised this natural phenomenon in the human body and they made it a part of the tradition to make use of that day as a day of sadhana, as a day of intensifying the spiritual processes. In Isha we have set up a tradition where the Shivarathri day every month is of importance to people who are here. The Mahashivarathri, which occurs once in a year, is of even greater significance. We want to be aware, awake, focused, and vertical also. So various situations are created at Isha Yoga Center on this day, combining powerful meditations and celebration, which will definitely keep you awake.
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