Cosmic Night of Shiva

The Dakshinamurthy Stotram describes Shiva as the youthful guru, facing southward, teaching his elderly disciples through jnana mudra. The Lingashtakam sings glories of Advaita Linga, symbol of the cosmos, Brahmananda. The Shiva Mahima Stotra of Pushpadanta sees him as the inexpressible Truth that yogis realise by concentrating their minds on the Self. Shiva is the three-eyed One whose blue-stained neck is a symbolic reminder of his capacity to remove toxins from the world. The Yajur Veda describes Him as the Master Yogin, Mahadeva, the great God. The panchakshara mantra, Aum Namah Shivaye, is a timeless chant propitiating the inscrutable invoking the easy-to-please Ashutosh. Bhishma in his discourse on Dharma to Yudhishthir in the Mahabharata, describes the observance of the Mahashivratri fast by King Chitrabhanu. In a previous birth, the king was Suswara the hunter, who one night had to seek refuge atop a bilva tree. He either cried or dropped the leaves down one by one to assuage his fear. By doing so, he unwittingly worshipped a linga that was embedded in the earth, with the bilva leaves sacred to Shiva and, so, earned merit. This allegorical story represents everyman’s inner journey, passing through the complex mind, with its conscious thinking and subconscious desires, where lust, hatred, greed and jealousy have to be overcome by rising above them, as Suswara climbed up the tree. His nightlong vigil is a call to alertness and viveka, and the dawning of day symbolises the awakening into cosmic consciousness.

Source: Economic Times, 4/03/3019