From Shavam to Shivoham

On February 23 this year falls the sacred festival of Shivarathri. This celebration has been one of the most significant events in the festival calendar of Prasanthi Nilayam, every year right from the 1950s. On many years, Bhagavan Baba, gracefully has used this occasion to offer a glimpse of His Divinity with the mysterious manifestation of the Linga from His own being. Besides this, the message that the Lord delivers to the large concourse of devotees who gather for this festival is deeply profound and revealing. Let us recapitulate one of those priceless discourses. Here is an excerpt from Bhagavan’s message delivered, nearly four decades ago, in 1969.

Though we have the Mahashivarathri once a year, we have a Shivarathri every month, dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva. And, why is the rathri (the night), so important? During the dark fortnight of the month, sadhana (spiritual practice) has to be done to eliminate each day a fraction of the mind, for, every day, a fraction of the Moon too is being taken out of cognisance. On the night of chathurdhasi, the 14th day, which is the night of Shiva, only a fraction remains.

If special effort is made that night, through more intensive and vigilant spiritual practice like puja or japam or dhyana (ritual worship, or one-pointed repetition of holy names or meditation), success is ensured. Shiva alone has to be meditated upon that night without the mind straying towards thoughts of sleep or food.

This has to be done every month; once a year, on Mahaashivaraathri,a special spurt of spiritual activity is recommended, so that what is shavam (corpse) can become Shivam (God), by the perpetual awareness of its Divine Indweller.

This is a day dedicated to the Shiva that is in each of you. From the Himalayan ranges down to Cape Kanyakumari, the entire land of India resounds today to the authentic declaration “Shivoham” and to the adoration, “Om Namah Shivaaya.”

Since thousands pray here, and elsewhere in lakhs and crores, the Linga is emanating from Me, so that you may derive the Bliss that pervades the World through Lingodhbhava (emergence of the Linga).

The manifestation of the Linga is a part of My Nature. These pandits (scholars of spirituality) explain it as reminiscent of an epochal event in the past when Shiva challenged Brahma and Vishnu to gauge the height and depth of the Linga Form He assumed. They failed and had to accept defeat. But, the Linga emerges, as a result of prayer and Grace. You have to recognise in this event a glimpse of Divinity, a sign of infinite Grace.

Just as Om is the sound symbol of God, the Linga is the form symbol or the visible symbol of God, the most meaningful, simplest and the least endowed with the appendages of attributes. Lingam means, that in which this jagath (world of change) attains laya (mergence or dissolution), Leeyathe. All Forms merge in the Formless at last. Shiva is the Principle of the Destruction of all Names and Forms, of all entities and individuals. So, the Linga is the simplest sign of emergence and mergence.