The story behind Maha Shivaratri
The festival has multiple layered meanings. It commemorates the cosmic wedding (kalyana) of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati — when, after long tapasya by Parvati, Shiva accepted her as his bride and th…
The festival has multiple layered meanings. It commemorates the cosmic wedding (kalyana) of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati — when, after long tapasya by Parvati, Shiva accepted her as his bride and the divine masculine and feminine united. It is also the night of Shiva's tandava — his cosmic dance of creation, preservation, and dissolution — and the night Shiva is said to have first manifested as the Lingam, the formless-form column of fire whose top and bottom even Brahma and Vishnu could not find. In Shaiva theology, the night is also when Shiva consumed the halahala (the cosmic poison from the Samudra Manthan) to save creation, holding it in his throat — the act that earned him the name Neelakantha (the blue-throated one).
The night-long vigil (jagaran) is the festival's signature practice. Devotees fast through the day (often nirjala or with one meal of fruits and milk), gather at Shiva temples or before household lingams in the evening, and worship through four watches — each marked by the abhishek of the Shiva Lingam with a different substance: milk in the first prahara, curd in the second, ghee in the third, honey or panchamrita in the fourth. Bilva (bel) leaves, dhatura, white flowers, and bhasma are offered. The mantra "Om Namah Shivaya" is chanted continuously through the night; the Maha Mrityunjaya mantra is recited for protection from death; the Rudram and Chamakam are sung in temples.