Why mahashivratri is celebrated at night in India
MahaShivaratri story in English
| What is the story behind MahaShivratri
 |
| Why mahashivratri is celebrated |
Introduction:
MahaShivratri is a Hindu festival, celebrated annually in honor of lord shiva, the
god of destruction. Shivratri is celebrated in every month of the lunisolar
calendar by the Hindu calendar but once a year, in late winter Maha Shivratri
is celebrated to commemorate the oncoming summer.
Maha
Shivratri translates as 'the great night of Lord Shiva' and according to
legend, it is on this night that Lord Shiva performs his heavenly dance or
'Tandav' representing creation, preservation, and destruction. As per many, it
is also the day when Lord Shiva and Mata Parvati got married thus the union of
Prakriti and Purusha for the well-being of the world.
Why mahashivratri is
celebrated
Devi Sati
was the daughter of the great king and son of Lord Bramha- Prajapati Daksha. Mata Sati being an incarnation of Shakti was destined to unite with Lord Shiva for
the welfare of the universe. However, Daksha did not want his daughter Sati to
marry Lord Shiva as he considered Shiva to be a dirty ascetic, unworthy of
being a god or being married to his daughter from a noble family.
Devi Sati
however, disobeyed her father and married Lord Shiva. After her marriage, she
moved to her husband's abode the Kailash mountain. Once Prajapati Daksha
organized a sacrificial ceremony also known as a Yagya and invited all gods and
devas to attend his grand Yagya. Due to his hatred towards Lord Shiva, he did
not invite both Shiva and his daughter Sati to the Yagya. When Sati came to
hear of the Yagya being organized by her father through Narad Muni, she longed
to go home and attend it. Lord Shiva was tried to talk her out of the idea,
trying to explain that had not been invited and it was obvious that the king
did not want them there. But Sati ignored her husband's advice and went to the
Yagya by herself.
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Upon
reaching she felt deeply saddened to see that no one except her mother Prasuti
was delighted to see her, not even her father Daksha, she realized that she was
now unwelcomed in her own house. Daksha was furious by her uninvited arrival
and humiliated her and mocked Shiva, Daksha began insulting Lord Shiva in front
of all his guests and Devi Sati could not bear any insults towards her husband,
wanting to break all ties with her father and uphold the honor of her husband,
Devi Sati self-immolated herself.
Deeply hurt
by the loss of his beloved wife, Lord Shiva performed the destructive Tandava
dance. He created two ferocious creatures Virbhadra and Bhadrakali, who wreaked
mayhem at the sacrificial place. Nearly all those present were felled
overnight, Daksha was decapitated by Veerbhadra. After that night Lord Shiva
who is considered the all-forgiving restored all those who were slain to life
and granted them his blessings. Daksha was also restored both to life and to
kingship; his severed head was substituted for that of a goat.
After the
death of his first wife Devi Sati, Lord Shiva withdrew from society and
engrossed himself in deep meditation. Taking advantage of the situation, the Asuras or demon king Tarakasura secured from the God Bramha the boon that he
could be killed only by the son of Lord Shiva. Believing himself effectively
immortal Tarakasura terrorized the beings of the universe and defeated the
gods. Meanwhile, Mata Pravati the reincarnation of Devi Sati was born to
Himavan, the god of the Himalayas, and his wife Mena.
When Mata
Parvati grew up, sage Narada told her that she was born to marry Lord Shiva but
she would have to follow the path of penance to please Shiva as he had
withdrawn himself from worldly affairs. Determined to marry Lord Shiva in her
new birth as well, Mata Parvati embarked upon an extremely difficult regime of
penance and devotion. For thousands of years, she only ate fruits and flowers.
Thereafter, for hundreds of years, she only fell leaves, eventually giving up
on all food and living on air to survive.
Due to thousands of years of severe penance, her body became extremely weak and fragile, the news of her penance spread all over the world. In the end, Lord Bramha appeared in front of Parvati and told her that no one in the entire universe had observed or done Tapasya or penance the way she did not even Lord Shiva. He blessed her to soon be married to Lord Shiva and gave her the name 'Bramhacharini' for her immense determination and penance. Maa Bramhacharini is also the second form of Ma Durga celebrated on the second day of Navaratri.
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On the other
hand in desperate need of help from Shiva to have his child who could bring an
end to Tarakasura, the gods sent Kamadeva the god of love to disturb Shiva's
meditation. Though Shiva was awakened by Kamadev's arrow, Kamadeva was burnt up
by Shiva's anger. Implored by the other gods to marry, Shiva agreed but decided
to test Maa Parvati's devotion first. Lord Shiva disguised himself as a hermit
and reached the place where Parvati was engrossed in her penance. Upon being
there, he began criticizing Shiva. He tried to influence Maa Parvati into
giving up her Tapasya for Shiva whom he said was an embodiment of
inauspiciousness, who carries skulls in his hand and who lives in a
crematorium. Maa Parvati angry by the comments of the hermit asks him to leave
her alone.
Even upon
many attempts at changing her mind, Mata Parvati did not get affected. Her
unwavering sense of devotion pleased Lord Shiva and he appeared in his original
form and was blessed to be married to him. On the day of marriage, Lord Shiva
reaches King Himavan's palace in the most terrorizing form along with the
strangest marriage procession also known as Baraat. His body was covered with
snakes, smeared in ashes and his hair was matted with unkempt locks. His
marriage procession consisted of ghosts, ascetics, sages, aghories, etc.
Upon seeing
the terrorizing form of Lord Shiva, Paravati's mother and other relatives were
left in a state of shock. Most of them fainted out of fear and terror. To avoid
any embarrassment to her family or her husband Lord Shiva, Mata Parvati
transformed herself into a different form as well. In this form, she was
golden, possessed ten arms, and was called Chanraghanta. In the form of Chandraghanta, she prayed and persuaded Shiva to take the form of a handsome
prince and also turn his marriage procession nobler, so the people can see
their gentler side and not be fearful of them.
Lord Shiva
and Mata Parvati got married in their beautiful divine forms and the day of
their marriage is celebrated as MahaShivratri every year. Skanda Purana also
narrates the story that when the divine wedding of Lord Shiva and Mata Parvati
took place in the Himalayas, all the living beings on earth headed the north
towards the great White Mountain to witness the grand wedding, because of that
earth began losing her balance.
So Lord
Shiva asked sage Agastya to go to the south to balance the earth's equilibrium.
Agastya was pleased with this signal honor but was also saddened because then
he won't be able to witness this divine wedding. Perceiving the thoughts in the
Rishi's mind, Lord Shiva granted him a boon that he and Mata Parvati would
appear before Agatsya, whenever the latter happened to think of them. Pleased
with a boon, Agatsya began his southward journey.
This is the
reason that in India, celebrating MahaShivratri festival once a year.
Read more:
- How Sudarshan Chakra was born?
- Why Mata Saraswati Cursed to Lord Bramha?
- Why Narada muni does not stay in one place?
- Why does Lord Shiva wear a snake around his neck?
Thank You!
Million-$-Knowledge
