Mahashivratri, as the name indicates — “the great night of Shiva”— is celebrated in honour of Lord Shiva, the Destroyer in the Hindu Trinity.
Who is Shiva? He is Rudra, the Mighty. He is blue-throated, because he drank the poison (churned from the milky ocean), which otherwise would have destroyed the human race. He is considered both the Creator and Destroyer of men: he destroys the ignorance that holds men in its thrall.
He is so simple that it is said that he can easily be deceived. So they call him Bholanath — the Lord who is gullible and often misled.
Dear to his compassionate heart were the lowliest of the low, the disinherited and the dispossessed, the untouchables and the outcasts. Of all the creatures in the world, he chose a shabby old bull — Nandi as his constant companion. And because the whole world runs away from snakes, he garlanded them round his neck.
He is the great Giver who gives and gives and ever gives out of his inexhaustible abundance. He gives alike to the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the good and the bad. He is like the sun that shines on all, denying to none its life-giving warmth and light.
Shiva and Shakti go together: we cannot think of one without the other; Shiva is Light, Knowledge. Wisdom: Shakti is the Primal Force, which expresses itself in the beauty and grandeur, the power and majesty of the universe around us. So in pictures and parables, Shiva is accompanied by Parvati — also called Uma, Sati, Kali, Durga. She is Gauri, the Golden One, fair and pure as the snow that falls on the Kailash, which is their home. There they dwell in beauty and blessing — Shiva, the Great God and Parvati, his devoted disciple, ever gazing at the Beloved of her heart.
He is the Master of Infinite Compassion, Infinite Mercy, Infinite Love.
Sometimes — perhaps, very often — the cause of our ignorance is something, someone, very dear to us. And the great God will not hesitate in removing the barriers that stand in the way of our enlightenment.
In worldly matters, may be, we can never mislead him. So is he called Rudra, the Terrible? And in the aarti which his bhaktas offer him, they address him as “The Sweetest of the Sweet, the Most Terrible of the Terrible!”
(Dada J.P. Vaswani is humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader.)
