Significance of Mahashivaratri - Tantra perspective

Satsang by Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Shivaratri, the cosmic merger of Shiva and Shakti, is celebrated on the dark moon of Magha (February /March). This union symbolizes the concept of kundalini yoga in which Shiva goes to meet Shakti. It represents the awakening of consciousness at the material level of existence and uniting with shakti at the higher point of evolution. Shiva means higher consciousness and ratri means night, referring to the 'dark night of the soul', the state just before illumination. Shivaratri is considered to be the most aus­picious day for sannyasins and for taking sannyasa diksha.

As the story goes, on Shivaratri, the darkest night of the year, Shiva, lord of yogis, sets out for the home of Parvati, daughter of the Himalayas. Shiva is an ascetic, and covered in snakes. His marriage party of demons and ghosts, sym­bolizing the instinctive and animal propensities of which he is controller, is equally horrendous. Some have no head, some walk on only one leg or maybe three. Some have huge elephant ears which flap in the breeze, others have a red eye in the middle of their forehead or in their belly.

However, no sooner do Shiva and his companions enter Parvati's Himalayan kingdom than they are all instantly transformed into lovely beings with beautiful faces, fine clothes and glittering ornaments. Instinct becomes intuition. Thus the marriage takes place amidst great wonder, joy and merrymaking. Then Shiva and Shakti go up to the top of Mount Kailash, symbolizing sahasrara chakra, where they embrace and merge in the highest bliss of cosmic consciousness.

After consummating their marriage, Shiva and Shakti descend together, symbolizing that the highest conscious­ness is now manifesting on the plane of duality. Having become one, Shiva and Shakti are now able to act in the world as two. This event is of great significance for the evolution of all beings because it also represents the process taking place in every aspirant who experiences a spiritual awakening and then returns with heightened awareness to work in the world.In tantra, Shiva represents the male principle, consciousness beyond all action and change. Shakti represents the female principle, eternal evolution through action. She is negative to his positive; he initiates, she receives and transmits. Shakti is the creative energy that manifests the universe in response to the inspired consciousness of Shiva. We perceive them as two, but really they are the complementary aspects of the one, for energy without consciousness is dissipated and consciousness without energy is impotent. They are inherent in each other, like brightness in the sun, and their union is the primal image of blissful communion and awareness of oneness through duality.

On the physical plane, the sages have long maintained, and science now agrees, that matter, consciousness and energy are one. The basic unit of matter, the atom, is now known to be a static, positive core of energy balanced by a dynamic, negative force field - the union of Shiva and Shakti. What applies to the microcosmic atom also applies to the macrocosm which is held together by intermeshing energy fields.

In the realm of the human psyche, the union of Shiva and Shakti is a deep-rooted archetype of the personal integration achieved when, through yoga, we come to understand the forces that constitute our personality. Within everyone is the masculine and feminine ideal, and by exploring this complementary inner nature, we can pass through to a richer mode of being. Through tantra we explore the dark terrain of the unconscious mind, granting conscious recognition to the unruly passions, violent impulses and irrational fantasies that are suppressed in the daily business of living. This instinctive part of our nature, symbolized by Shiva's demonic companions, is transformed when we yoke together the opposites within ourselves ­positive and negative, masculine and feminine, Shiva and Shakti. An awakening takes place and the unfulfilled potential within our psyche becomes actualized, revealing our true inner nature. What we have long considered monstrous becomes divine.

Shiva is the eternal faculty of awareness, the unchanging, unmoving spark of the divine in each of us. Shakti gives us the mind and body that are our tools for the direct perception of this divine awareness. Shakti is the power that propels us to the peaks of expanded awareness. On the spiritual plane, the union of this cosmic couple is the primal image of blissful union in the Absolute. In sexual rapture we forget our isolated selves and experience a fragment of joy, but this is just a foretaste of the eternal ecstasy that dissolves the individual consciousness into the supreme.

The union of Shiva and Shakti is the primordial symbol of eternal communion with the divine. Here there is neither purity nor impurity, neither affirmation nor denial, neither form nor formlessness, but a state of superconscious being that is beyond all duality. The union of man and woman becomes the union of Shiva and Shakti; the physical union becomes psychic union in the highest state of transcendental consciousness. The ordinary man and woman, the creatures of passion and ignorance, are transmuted into transcen­dental Shiva and Shakti, unconditioned and free.

Of Adages and Stories

As time goes by, words have different effects on us. They reveal themselves in different light.
Maybe they get subtler, finer and polished.
Like many of us, i had some favourite quotation, proverbs, sayings, adages and stories.
There are some adages, from my experience, that have lost power. Some got redefined and then new ones came into limelight.

I believe Guru or Guiding light or Inspiration (whatever one chooses to name it) manisfests in form of words (mantras?)

Mind over Matter.
This was an important adage that kept me going, and not letting body dictate the limits. I "believed" and it would work. Though this is still a wonderful thought. Now i think... There is Guru's Grace above all of this. Spirit over mind over matter.

Dont get mad, get even.
Hmmm.... This is a world of competition, revenge, vendetta. Kali Yuga. :) There is so much hardness, harshness and crudeness around. Covering up the heart deep within which is still full of love, High above the Spirit is at peace. we tear away our eyes from compassion, love and forgiveness. This mantra was given to me, when i stepped into the corporate world. and the material world in general. Now there is no need to get even any more. I have found way to channelise that anger constructively. And reminding myself, there is no wrong being done, it is fine and perfect.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Again the race is on.  Adrenalin.... Ya ya.. I'd subscribed to this like bible. Like animals pitted against each other in a cage. A F1 car race. CHALLENGE, CHALLENGE., CHALLENGE.. WIN.. WIN... WIN... GO... GO... GO... So much that, one cannot operate without resistance. Then one burns out, just when the climax is reached. There was no joy of accomplishment. Then i got bored with the peace and tranquility. Wtf.. GIMMEE more challenges. how do i act?

This adage lost power... Firstly, When the going gets tough, it is a blessing.
Secondly, something is tough or easy comes from comparison. A situation is simply a situation. Either one does it or one does not. Any which way it is fine.

As time passed, newer adages took precedence and begin governing the direction of my thoughts.

From a vision board in a clinic
Lord give me the serenity to accept what i cannot change, the strength to change what i can and the wisdom to know the difference.


From Dale Carnegie.
Be generous, honest and truthful in your appreciations. This stays put on the list of favorits, from school times.

Allama Iqbal
1. Raise yourself to the heights of courage and strength of spirit, such that God himself would need to ask before he writes every bit of your destiny.

2. In the strife ridden material life, the battle of existence, Belief in Self, Faith in God and Universal Love, are the weapons of the brave.

Bhagavad Gita
Athah Yogah Anushashanam
Sthita Pragya
Yoga Samatwam Uchyate

Sri Ramakrishna

1. You dont have to drop any habit, when the time comes the powerful gale of the transformation will do the neeedful
2. You become what you pretend to be
3. A spiritual person is gentle (soft) in demeanour

Swami Vivekananda
Arise, Awake and Stop not till the goal is reached.

Anonymous (Dont remember where i read this)

Be like the grass that survives the flood and not the tree which wont bend and gets uprooted in the flood

From Yoga School Shri Yogendra
Awareness is Yoga

Our Guru, Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati
The prayer of the Disciple: Protect me from trauma, NO, thats not my prayer. I only pray that i be able to face all the adversities with confidence, equanimity and humility.

Ramnavami, Yoga teacher, friend and guide 
To live life and do your duties you need Guru's Grace, material resource, and wisdom. Siddhi, Riddhi and Buddhi.


There are two stories which reinforce the thoughts "Remain steadfast and solid in your beliefs, Be true to your nature" which i shall elaborate on.
From Kulkarni Sir:
There was this guy Surendra, who is used to buy newspaper from the gate everyday. Surendra's frinad Tanay usually accompanied him. After buying the newspaper, Surendra said thank you to the vendor without fail. For which he never got any response. One day Tanay tells him, why bother thanking that fellow, he is not even bothered. To which Surendra says, to say so is my nature, to not respond is his. I do what is closest to my heart. :)

The second story was told by my Guru, Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati to us during a Satsang. Once Sant Dnyaneswar (Dnyanoba) found a scorpion lying in the sun not finding any stone to hide under. he picked it up and started walking towards the river bank, where there were many rocks. The scorpion stings him and falls of from his hand. Onlookers gasp and panic yet Dnyanoba picks it up again, and again the scorpion stings and falls off. This way finally Dnyanoba manages to place the scorpion near the rocks on the river bank. It scampers away under  a rock. One among the onlooker asks him, why were you even bothered to help that thankless and wretched creature which stung you though you were helping it. Dnyanoba said, to sting is the scorpion's nature and compassion mine. Each of us was doing our dharma.