A Scientific View Point on Maha Shivratri

Maha Shivratri is a day to venerate Lord Shiva by fasting, performing puja and meditation. This complete day we get to hear a lot more than we can imagine and assume. Indeed, every person, be it rich, poor, good, bad, beautiful or ugly is filled with devotion. Performance of Maha Shivratri puja, chanting mantras, offerings and various other possible means are happening at every Mahadev temple to please lord Shiva. It is said to be the great night of Shiva, and thus a night-long vigil, aarti and fasting have an esoteric importance to all with little acquaintance of this day’s reality. What is this day all about or why so much of enthusiasm flows everywhere?

Indian mythology depicts trinity, three great powers, of which Shiva is considered to be the destroyer. Having said this, on Maha Shivratri, the role of destruction is not for annihilation but for transformation. For instance, the killing of lord Ganesha happened to turn him into a source of wisdom, so was the case with Daksha’s slaying; he was altered into a devotee. To add more, asuras were assassinated to help them turn Ganas.

One of the sagas, ideate how Shakti transmogrified the thoughts of a sage who believed there is only Shiva and nothing but Shiva. To break this stalemate, Shakti appeared in front of him, but not before this happened. He was deep asleep and suddenly he felt his body is lifeless and could not be moved. He got petrified and started moaning that “I have no power (Shakti).”

On this, Maa Shakti asked him about Shakti and Shiva. The sage on learning this, started praising and praying Maa Shakti.

This story describes the power comes from Shakti and Shiva is a conduit for Shakti. Without Shiva, Shakti is just a destructive power and without Shakti, Shiva is Shava, a lifeless body. Shiva and Shakti’s union causes creative destruction and not just demolition. Creative destruction has a purpose of regeneration or spiritual transformation.

To shed some light and to invigorate the ideation of creative destruction, we all must know that Shiva Tandavam is creative no matter how strange the destruction looks like.

A human body is filled with Shakti that is the kundalini energy. In absence of Shiva, the release of this energy turns destructive. It flows where it wants and has no specific path. Outbreaks the laws of universe and destroys everything by creating its own way. This energy is considered to be a fertilizer, and if it is thrown everywhere then it is wasted. But, with the presence of Shiva, or rather when Shiva does tandav, kundalini gets a direction. Thus, love and power are the two important ingredients any creative destruction.

Our lives can be beautified by obeisance to this basic knowledge of spirituality. Destructions are a part and parcel of our lives, but it is we who can identify our inner soul’s spiritual progress. Our stoppages prevent us from paying homage to our inner Shiva and Shakti. Let us reap the spiritual rewards by getting spiritually enlightened on this Maha Shivaratri in 2016. Let the nourished demons within us get destroyed and transmuted into energies that would support us sacredly forever. By pleasing our one and only Bholenath alias Lord Shiva with innumerable names, we would admonish the negativities and fill in ourselves with positivity. Maha Shivratri puja benefits are not just one to describe, thus it is up to the person’s desire that leads him/her follows this day. Therefore, let us purify ourselves and invoke the destroyer or rather the creative destructor, Lord Shiva to unite with Shakti to transform us from polluted soul to purified one.