MAHA-SHIVARATRI
Maha Shivaratri is a great festival in Hinduism, celebrated annually with devotion and religious enthusiasm in honor of the Lord Shiva, deities of the Hindu Trinity. The literal meaning of Shivaratri is “The Great Night of Lord Shiva”.
According to the Hindu calendar, it is celebrated in the Varanasi in the dark fortnight or Krishna Paksha on the 13th night or 14th day of the month Maagha or Phalguna (month of February or March according to the English calendar) to worship Shiva Lingam to make happy the Lord Shiva.
The festival celebrates the grand marriage of the lord of destruction, Shiva -- with the goddess of fertility, love, and beauty -- Parvati, who is also known as Shakti (power). According to Hindu mythology, on the night of the marriage, Lord Shiva had a very diverse group of acquaintances including Hindu gods, goddesses, animals, and demons escorting him to the house of the goddess.
Spiritual Significance of Mahashivratri
Legends apart, why this day and night are held with such importance in the yogic traditions is because of the possibilities it presents to a spiritual seeker. Modern science has gone through many phases and arrived at a point today where they are 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 and galaxies, is just one energy which manifests itself in millions of ways.
This scientific fact is an experiential reality in every yogi. The word “yogi” means one who has realized the oneness of existence All longing to know the unbounded, all longing to know the oneness in existence is yoga. The night of Mahashivratri offers a person an opportunity to experience this.
Devotees throng Shiva shrines across Odisha on Mahashivratri. Special arrangements made at Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar, Dhabaleswar temple in Cuttack, Kapilash in Dhenkanal, & Baba Lokanath temple in Puri, Vedvyas in Rourkela, Panchalingeswar in Balasore, Akhandalamani in Bhadrak as devotees queue up at the Shiva shrines on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri.
Lingaraj temple, one of the oldest Shiva shrines in the state attracted around one lakh devotees. The devotees formed serpentine queues in front of the temple to pay obeisance to the Lord.
Apart from Lord Lingaraj in Bhubaneswar, the temple of Lord Lokanath in the town of Puri bore much significance for the devotees. It has been witnessing a surge in devotee inflow every Shivratri.
The famous Akhandalamani temple at Aradi village is bracing up to host more than two lakh devotees from Odisha and neighboring States on Shivratri.
Similarly, the shrines of Panchalingeswar in Balasore, Kapilash in Dhenkanal, Vedavyas Rourkela and Lord Dhabaleswar in Cuttack were also decked up to welcome lakhs of Shiva devotees.
Mahashivratri is an opportunity and a possibility to bring yourself to that experience of the vast emptiness within every human being, which is the source of all creation.
