Biologists have pointed out that one of the biggest steps in the evolutionary
process for an animal is to move from a horizontal to a vertical spine.
It is only after this step that your intelligence flowers. So, by making
use of this natural upsurge of energies on the night long festival of
Mahashivarathri, with the right kind of mantras and meditations, we can
move one step closer to the Divine. The raising of energies takes place
even if there is no sadhana in a person’s life, but especially for those
people who are into some kind of yogic sadhana, keeping the body in a
vertical position, or in other words, not sleeping on this night is very
important.
Mahashivarathri is very significant for people who are on the
spiritual path, and also for people with ambitions in the world and in
family situations. For people living in family situations,
Mahashivarathri is worshiped as Shiva’s wedding anniversary. The
ambitious see it as the day Shiva conquered all his enemies. But in the
yogic tradition, we do not consider Shiva as a God, but as the first
guru or Adi Guru – the one who started the yogic process. The word
“Shiva” means “that which is not.” If you can keep yourself in such a
state that you are not yourself, and allow Shiva to be, then the
possibility of opening up a new vision into life and looking at life
with total clarity is possible.
What we refer to as Shiva is nothing but the very embodiment of
ultimate perception. It is an
opportunity and a possibility for all to raise their perception by at
least one notch. It is an opportunity to not be embroiled in thoughts,
emotions, or conclusions that you have drawn about life. This is what
Shiva is about and this is what yoga is about.
May this Mahashivarathri night not just be a night of wakefulness,
but let this also become a night of intense aliveness and awareness for
you. It is our wish and blessing that you make use of this wonderful
gift that nature offers us on this day. I hope all of you ride this
upsurge and know the beauty and ecstasy of what it means when we say
“Shiva.”
Power of the Mantra
Today modern science is proving that everything you know as life, everything
that you know as existence, as cosmos, as galaxies, it is all just one
energy manifesting itself in millions and millions of ways. This is an
experiential reality in every yogi. The word yoga means union, and the
word yogi means one who has known the oneness of the existence. The
whole process of yoga is about bringing this experiential reality into
every human being.
When we say yoga, it is 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. Either you can simply go at it with
the strength of your emotion, or you can approach it systematically so
that you find fruit as quickly as possible. Or in other words, if
everything is one energy the difference between the rock and what you
call as human, is just a question of subtleness of energy. Though it is
the same, it is in different levels of subtleness. When it’s very gross
we call it a rock, when it’s in it’s utmost subtleness, we call it the
Divine.
So to know and experience this divinity means evolving our energies
to higher possibilities, evolving our energies to subtler dimensions
within ourselves. During Mahashivarathri, in the northern hemisphere of
this planet, a very special process happens naturally where one can see
that there is a natural upsurge of energies in every human body. To make
use of this natural upsurge of energy, one has to remain vertical in
spine. As your biologists have always pointed out, one of the biggest
step in the evolutionary process for the animal is to move from
horizontal to vertical spine. It’s only after that your intelligence
flowered. So, on this night if one is willing to keep their spine erect
during the night, we will do everything possible to keep you awake. By
making use of this natural upsurge of energies, with the right kind of
mantras, meditation and the whole situation, one could step closer to
the divine.
People who are of very logical in their minds naturally will wonder
what is going to happen by just uttering a mantra. There is a wonderful
story in the yogic lore. One day a kriya yogi who has great
accomplishments behind him went to Shiva and asked Shiva “What is all
this, your bhaktas are making all noise in the world, all the time they
are shouting ‘Shiva Shambho’, what is this going to do? What is the use
of going on yelling these mantras like this?”
Shiva said, “Let’s experiment, here there is a worm crawling, go
close to him and say ‘Shiva Shambho’, let’s see what happens.” The yogi
went to the worm and uttered “Shiva Shambho”, the worm fell dead. The
yogi was filled with shock, “I just uttered this mantra, your name, and the worm is
dead..! What is this?” Shiva completely oblivious of the worm, pointed at
the butterfly and said “See how wonderful this butterfly is”. The yogi
also got involved with the butterfly; Shiva said, “attempt the mantra
with the butterfly”. The yogi looked in the direction of the butterfly
and uttered “Shiva Shambho”, the butterfly fell dead. The yogi was
totally in turmoil and said, “What is this? If I just utter your name,
one after another is falling dead. I don’t want to say it anymore.”
Shiva completely ignored this and looked at a wonderful deer that was
romping around. He said, “Look at the deer, it so wonderful. Why don’t
you utter the mantra to the deer and see?” The yogi uttered “Shiva
Shambho” and the deer fell dead. He said, “No! No more can I say this!”
Then somebody brought their newborn child to Shiva for his blessings,
and then Shiva said, “Why don’t you utter the mantra to this child?”
The yogi said, “No, I cannot do this. Already the worm, the butterfly
and the deer I have behind me, I don’t want to see this.” Shiva said “It
doesn’t matter, say it.” So the yogi with great hesitation went to the
child and uttered “Shiva Shambho”. This newborn child just sat up and
said, “Oh yogi, don’t you know the power of the mantra? Don’t you know
the power of the name of lord Shiva?” The yogi said “No, can you tell
me?” He said, “Yes. I was a worm and you uttered the mantra, I became a
butterfly, you uttered the mantra again and I became a deer, you uttered the
mantra once again and I became human. If you utter the mantra once more, I will become
divine.”
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