Shiv isn’t a person who existed at some point in time. Shiv isn’t confined to a specific place. Stories are sometimes useful pointers to the truth, but in our ignorance, we take the pointers themselves as history, facts or Truth. Shiv is the joy of pure consciousness. When false identifications and attachments are dropped in the light of self-knowledge, what remains is called the untainted essence of Shiv.
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With Mahashivratri around the corner, many of us find ourselves struggling to discover the actual and deeper meaning of the festival. We wonder: surely there has to be something beyond the rituals and performances. More importantly, it strikes us when we are contemplative: who is Shiv?
Mahashivaratri is the only festival that is celebrated throughout the night traditionally with little music, no colors or decorations, and minimum ostentation and lights. This unique night is the confluence of two streams—the first is that of destruction, of dissolution, and the second is of creation, a new beginning.
Before any new beginning can happen, we need to let go of the old—everything that’s obscure, misleads, and deludes. The lies, the illusions, the beliefs that hold us back—they need to be washed away. That is the true essence of Mahashivratri.
Who is Shiv?
