HAPPY SHIVRATRI Happy Shivratri! Let's not quibble whether we are celebrating the birth of Shiva or his marriage with Parvati for both really symbolize one and the same – the 'beginning' of time and space as we know it. I say symbolic because actually there is no starting 'point' and Shiva - awareness (and thus the fulfillment)of all That I Am is inherent in the Absolute; and indeed due to which the Absolute can be in this unqualified state of 'rest' and unawareness.
In linear times however, this aspect of Self that we call Shiva awareness, and its life force Shakti, is viewed as the 'beginning' of creation, time and space and existence indeed - and this is what we celebrate as Shivratri! We celebrate the illusion, we celebrate the big bang of the dice being flung at the 'start' of the cosmic game; we celebrate the move out of oneness into duality with much the same gusto as best friends do when they become adversaries in a game; we celebrate the move from all knowing to the thrill of rediscovery much like a treasure hunt we willfully create, whereby the journey is the goal and the goal only a carrot or means towards that! We celebrate, yes, in the full awareness of being a Shiva; being Love and the Will to creatively explore or revel in it infinitely and infinitesimally… knowing that while we are out having an adventure we are safe at home and deeply fulfilled! Conjure Your Shiva aspect sitting in this idyllic spot with a host of computer screens, watching self in various roles, creating all the props required, one more beautiful than the other by the mere act of glancing at the screens! Or conjure him playing a zillion online games- each allowing him to experience, explore, revel in a different facet of Self … and as an aspect gets fulfilled, he winds up that game and its beingness to start yet another! And yet he is always at rest and in play simultaneously in that idyllic spot!
Thus is Shivratri celebrated as Shiva's 'birth' as it is the 'beginning' of all that we know to be; and thus is celebrated as his marriage with Parvati –because this beginning cannot 'be' without the mating or divine marriage - of consciousness (Shiva, awareness, yang) and energy (Shakti/prakriti/yin) at different levels... first with 'void' and then prakriti ! 'Parvati' is the feminine aspect that dons this particular name and form to symbolize the 'beloved' aspect of the feminine (as different from the feminine as mother.) Indeed 'That' reflection...dancing vitally alive and memerzing prakriti which 'awareness' shiva falls in love with when It becomes aware of That I Am! This 'attraction' is indeed that all famous universal law of attraction we speak so much about these days!
I don't know in what reference Rumi has written this but it brings to my mind Shiva and Shakti…
I see my beauty in you and become a mirror that cannot close its eyes
To your longing
My mind, always conceiving,
Always in the 9th month
Always at come point
How do I stand this…?
Together we become the longing, the words, the worlds
That rise from nowhere
How does your face contain them?
I am an empty sky stretched out in homage to you..
Shivratri thus falls around the beginning of the first zodiac sign, Aries (each zodiac starts earlier in the indian clander than the dates we follow in the western calender) It is spring, it is the urge to be, and passion is in the air, and all is 'coming' into being! For tarot fellow travelers it falls during the period of the wands suit- which also symbolizes will to be, initiative, and the thrust which sets all into momentum!
From my heart to yours, I wish you
-A Happy Shivratri!
-May you celebrate in this awareness and be a joyous Shiva!
-May you stabilize in your I AM consciousness and its fulfillment ... and be the Shiva safe at home wholly aware of That I Am and in this joyously play the game of life, creation, and existence! Revel through the night, in this awareness, instead of falling ‘asleep’ in its seeming darkness of ignorance and separation!
Love it is.
Love Divyaa Kummar
www.divyaakummar.com
In deep embrace with you; in orgasmic play with existence; a little more of you; a little less of me…Osho
|
