The night of Shiv

[1]

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev [1]

When we say Shiv, most people look at him as some kind of a God who is beyond everything. But when we go through the Shiv Purana, we find that Shiv went through everything that any normal human being would go through. He is many things at the same time. He is the most beautiful and also the ugliest.

He is a great ascetic and also a family person. He is the most disciplined and also a drunkard and a drug addict. He is a dancer and he is also absolutely still. And gods, demons and all kind of creatures in the world worship him.
One reason why Shiv is this way is that if you can accept this man who is a complex formation of every quality you can find in this universe — beautiful, ugly, great, low, heaven and hell — then you have crossed life itself. The whole struggle is because we are always trying to pick out what is beautiful, what is not, what is good and what is bad.
Maha Shivratri is very significant for people who are going through the spiritual process, for people who are in family situations, and also for the ambitious in the world.
For people who live in family situations, Maha Shivratri is celebrated as Shiv’s wedding anniversary. For the ascetics, this is the day when, after millenniums in meditation, all movement in Shiv stopped and he became utterly still. For the ambitious, this is the day when Shiv conquered all his enemies. So whatever the legends say, the significance of Maha Shivratri is that on this day there is a natural upsurge of energies in the human body.
Blessed are those who make use of this night, sitting erect, not falling asleep. They can move their energies heavenward, effortlessly. This night we are supposed to spend awake, aware, with our spines erect, so that whatever sadhana we are doing, there is assistance from nature and the natural upward movement happens. All evolution in a human being is fundamentally an upward movement of energy.
From being just a biological entity to becoming a spiritual aspirant, what is needed is an upward movement of energy. When we exist here, catering only to a certain aspect of nature, which is our body, our life will be merely about survival and procreation. The physical dimension of the existence really has no other purpose than this. If you look at every creature on this planet, you will see everything is constantly aspiring to survive and to procreate so that life just goes on. Human life has a purpose beyond.
This year Maha Shivratri falls on March 10.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, an internationally renowned spiritual leader, is a visionary, humanitarian, author, poet and speaker.