Category: Culture and Tradition.

Mahashivaratri is one of the most significant spiritual occasions in Sanatana Dharma. The day is commemorated to remember the wedding of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. This divine wedding lore still resonates among Indian masses as it still represents what true love stands for. Love today is perceived as mere companionship or a mutually beneficial alliance as per the needs of two individuals, once the needs are no longer required/fulfilled they leave, and seek this unsatisfactory sense of love somewhere else. When we talk about Shiva and Devi, here love is known as Union. In a union, there is no place for prejudices, manipulation, greed, arrogance and perpetual or casual toxicity. In a union, the two forces are merged permanently as one, there is no separation and defiance. Union of bodies, emotions, thoughts and energies creates an experience of inexplicable ecstasy, among these, the union with energies can remain long-lasting whereas the others offer limited pleasure.

Most mortals are today aware of only one sense of pleasure which is through sexual pleasure. In Bharat, even Sexuality was considered sacred, as you can easily find imageries outside ancient temples as a representation of that sense. Those cultures where sexuality was suppressed and considered a sin, have today all turned hostile, especially for females and have created unstable individuals in society. The energies in reproductive organs are considered sacred in the tantra shastras, as it was known that this energy which merges in a physical union can give birth to life and creates pleasure, similarly the union/merger of one’s own masculine and feminine forces or the Ida and Pingala Nadis can enhance one’s perception of reality as the kundalini form of Devi, the life force of cosmos lying in the reproductive region rises upward and one experiences endless ecstasies of divine union.

During Mahashivaratri, the Kalyanam or the wedding ceremony of Lord Shiva and Devi Parvati are organised in many temples and sacred spaces, the Vedic marriage mantras recited during the rituals generate a spiritual experience of that union. Why is it so important to understand this union? Because creation and birth of all matter, space and time in which you as life were born like the rest of this universe was an outcome of this union. Even now all living beings are wakeful and experiencing this world only because these energies are still in union within your body, but you are not conscious about it. Mahashivaratri is an auspicious time, where spiritual activities such as pujas and meditation done during this kaala with devotion, can make one or take closer to experience the boundless cosmic union of Lord Shiva and Mother Parashakti, which is known as Ardhanari or Ardhanarishvara.

((Collected))

Published By Shruti Adhya Kundu MARKETING OFFICER of SYCN