SHIVRATRI

SHIVRATRI

Its that time of year,
when all beings of the manifest world,
from ants
to birds,animals and even plants ,
behave with a certain cheer,
as if,cosmically 'stirred' out of their sleepy dormancy
into a mood of 'waking'.
We humans too find ourselves bubbly ;
winter has gone, and a sparkling sun
is thawing its way, springing into a fresh sky .
And everyone seems to perceive that certain divinity
about the way Nature begins the season's regeneration.
Shiv bhakts, in particular, seem doubly merry ,
with a definitive halo of authority
that has recently dawned on their countenance ,
getting into busy mode and frenetic festivity..!
And why not?
Its that time of year,when ,
in the dark half of 'Phalgun'
in English February or maybe March
on the on the I3th or I4th day ,
the longest night, which is also moonless and so the darkest ,
has come .
But behold,they say it is the great night of their auspicious lord,
Shiva ratri, the beginning of all light.
Celebrated all over India,
in homes and in temples,
by the ascetics and the householders,
in sobre prayer and in ecstatic intoxication,
by ritual and by trance,
in stillness and in dance,
and many things more.
It is attended by legends,
of the wicked and the devout
the sickly and the stout,
but none agrees on exactly what its about.

"Its Shiva's birthday ", say some.
Others swear its his wedding night with Parvati,
some Opine that is when the Ananda tandava , 'the first dance' began,
yet others teach of it
as the profundity of awakening,
saying its the celebration of the day Shiva was illumined about Primal consciousness,
His own rhythm divine!