SHIVRATRI BLESSINGS FROM PUJYA SWAMIJI

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is old and impure in order to make room for a new creation of that which is pure

and divine. Lord Shiva annihilates our egos, our attachments and our ignorance.

Many fear Lord Shivas destructive capacity, and yet it is destruction for the

purpose of regeneration. Without death, life cannot begin anew. Without the

annihilation of old habits, attachments and ego, we cannot progress toward the

goal of God realization. Unless our vessel has been emptied of all that is old,

negative and impure, it cannot be filled with divine qualities. There is a

beautiful story of a man, a spiritual seeker who was eagerly in search of

enlightenment. He had performed many years of sadhana and study and felt that

he was ready for the final 'touch'. Thus, he went out in search of the Guru who

could grant him true enlightenment. Everyone told the man that high on top of a

certain mountain lived an enlightened master who could bestow enlightenment

upon his disciples and devotees. The seeker

traveled weeks on foot to reach the Master in his cave on the mountain top. Upon

arrival he fell down at the Master's feet and proclaimed his earnest wish for

enlightenment. The seeker proceeded to tell the Master of all the sadhana he

had done, that which he had learned, that which he had experienced and that

which he felt he still needed to obtain. The Master listened silently. When the

seeker finally finished his long explanation of his own spiritual experiences,

the Master said, "Let us have a cup of tea." The seeker looked shocked, "A cup

of tea??" he exclaimed. "I've practiced for years, meditated for years,

searched for months and walked for weeks in order to reach you so I could

finally be granted enlightenment. I do not want a cup of tea. I want to be

liberated!" However, the Master calmly insisted that he first have a cup of

tea. The Master placed a cup on the ground, next to the seeker, and began to

pour hot tea from the kettle into the cup. When the tea

reached the rim of the cup, the Master did not stop pouring. Rather, he kept

pouring and pouring, even as the tea filled the cup and began to flow over the

sides of the cup, out of the saucer and onto the floor of his cave. The seeker

jumped up as the hot tea touched his knees. "Stop," he cried. "The cup is full.

It cannot hold any more. Please stop pouring tea. It is all going to waste all

over the floor." The Master sat down and said to the seeker: "You are like this

tea cup. You are so full of what you think you know, what you think you've

achieved, what you think you've seen and what you think you need, that there is

no room for me to teach you anything. Until you empty yourself of your own ego

and your own illusions, my teachings will only go to waste like this tea on the

floor."Lord Shiva empties our cup of that to which we are attached, so that we

may be re-filled with true awareness, true knowledge, true Divine light. Thus,

it is not destruction for

destruction's sake. It is destruction for the sake of re-creation. CELEBRATION

OF MAHA SHIVRATRI The holiday of Shivratri is frequently celebrated by

performing special Shiva puja and Abhishek as well as by remaining awake at

night in meditation, kirtan and japa. During the course of the night, the

Abhishek can be performed every three hours with water, milk, yogurt, honey,

etc. Bel (bilva) leaves are frequently offered during Shiva puja, as it is

believed that Maha Lakshmi resides within them, and it is considered

particularly auspicious to offer them on this occasion. It is said that the

offering of Bel leaves on the occasion of Shivratri is so auspicious that even

one who offers them unknowingly (as in the case of the hunter Suswara) will

attain liberation. THE MEANING OF ASH Bhagwan Shiva is portrayed with ash on

his forehead, and devotees of Lord Shiva frequently apply sacred ash to various

parts of their body. This symbolizes two things. Everything that today has a

form on the Earth once was ash in the ground and again will be reduced to

nothing but ash. Therefore, the ash serves to remind us that all that we are,

all that we do, all that we earn and acquire will only be reduced to ash one

day, and therefore we should live our lives dedicated to God and dedicated to

serving humanity, rather than to the accumulation of temporary possessions and

comfort. When we apply the sacred ash or see it, we are reminded Ah yes, it is

only by the grace of Lord Shiva that I am still here today, and that I have not

yet been turned to ash. It is His grace that my home, my family and my

possessions are still with me and that they have not become ash. Therefore, I

should remember Him, pray to Him and devote myself to Him.

LORD SHIVA AS THE "MAHA DEVA" - SWALLOWING THE POISON The stories and the

messages of Bhagwan Shiva are innumerable; however, one of the most important

is the story of how He for the sake of humanity swallowed the poison which

emerged from the ocean. The story says that the devas and their brothers, the

demons, were churning the ocean together in search of the pot of the nectar of

immortality. However, after a great deal of effort, what emerged was not

nectar, but poison!! This happens frequently in life as well. When we embark

upon a divine plan or when we undertake a noble challenge, frequently before

the success comes, before our effort bears fruit, we face failure or

condemnation or seemingly insurmountable hurdles. Yet, we must never give up.

The devas and demons knew that in order to continue churning, and ultimately to

unearth the Divine

nectar, they could not simply toss the poison aside. Someone had to drink it.

But, naturally, no one was willing to drink the poison. Everyone had some

excuse for why he or she was too valuable to be sacrificed. Finally, Bhagwan

Shiva came forward, very calmly and with serene poise. He said I will drink the

poison if it will preserve peace in the family and enable my brothers and

sisters to attain the nectar of immortality. After drinking the poison, and

thereby enabling the churning to continue, Bhagwan Shiva held the poison in

his throat hence the name Neelkanth which means Blue Throat and sat peacefully

in meditation for eternity. HOW TO DEAL WITH THE POISON IN OUR OWN LIVES In our

lives, in our families, so much poison emerges between parents and children,

between husband and wife, between in-laws. We wait and wait for the divine

nectar to emerge, but it

seems that only poison comes. So many times people come to me, complaining, But

why should I always be the one to compromise? Why should I always be the one to

sacrifice? Why should I always say Im sorry? Its not fair! On this night of

Shivratri, as we worship Bhagwan Shiva, it is also the night that we must pray

for the strength to take his message to heart! Let us not only worship him, but

let us emulate him. He who is willing to peacefully swallow the poison, he who

is willing to sacrifice for the family, for the community and for humanity is

the true Mahadeva. Bhagwan Shiva went to the Himalayas, to the land now called

Neelkanth to meditate after he drank the poison. The message is that when

poison emerges in the home, when poison emerges anywhere in our lives, when we

feel like if we swallow it we will die, but if we dont drink it then the fight

will continue the secret is to meditate! You dont have to go to the Himalayas.

Just create your own

Himalayas. Wherever you are. First, be the one to accept the poison. Be the one

to sacrifice, apologize and concede humbly. Then go, sit and meditate

peacefully. This is not weakness, but strength. Poison always comes; obstacles

always come. When we work for good causes, when we embark upon divine work, the

poison always comes before the nectar. However, we must never get discouraged.

We must never give up. If the devas and demons had forfeited the churning at

the sign of poison, the nectar of immortality would never have emerged, and it

would have been a tragedy for the world. Similarly, we must always have faith

that the nectar WILL come. It is only a matter of time. We must be willing to

churn and churn, no matter what comes be it poison or nectar. On the night of

Shivratri as we remember the churning between the devas and demons for the

nectar of immortality, we must take anoter lesson to heart. After the nectar

emerged, the demons tried to abscond with it.

Thus they would be ever more powerful and ever more able to destroy their

brothers, the devas. However, through a series of divine interventions, the

devas emerged the victors and the ones with the gift of immortality. The night

of Shivratri is especially auspicious for winning this same battle within

ourselves the battle between good and evil, between right and wrong, between

poison and nectar, between death and immortality. Let us use our puja, our

prayers, our meditations on this night to pray for divine intervention so that

within ourselves the good might vanquish the evil, the nectar within us might

emerge, rather than poison, and that we too may be carried from death to

immortality. May God bless you all and all of your families.With love and

blessings.In the service of God and humanity,Swami Chidanand Saraswati

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