Mahashivratri
Shivratri
is celebrated a night before ‘amavasya’ (full dark night) in the
month of Phalgun (February – March) in North India. As per
traditional calendars followed in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka
and Maharashtra this is the Magh Krishna Paksha Chaturdasi. The
significance of Shivaratri is closely associated with ‘amavasya.’
Amavasya represents Kaliyuga. Lord Shiva appeared just before the
beginning of Kaliyuga to rid the world of evil and ignorance, which
is symbolically represented through Amavasya. Therefore Mahashivratri
is celebrated to get rid of evil and ignorance.
On
the Shivratri day, Lord Shiva is worshiped in a special form of Linga
called ‘Lingodabhavamurti or Jyotirlinga.’ It is a lingam in the
form of fire which has neither a beginning nor an end. It must be
noted here that ‘linga’ only means ‘sign.’ And it is merely
an attempt to capture the formless.
Apart
from this there are numerous
legends and myths associated
with Shivratri. An important myth is that Shivaratri is the birthday
of Lord Shiva – this is mainly because the formless Lord Shiva
appeared for the first time in the form of ‘Lingodabhavamurti’
before Lord Vishnu and Brahma.
Other
important myths include that of Taandava, the consummation of poison
during the churning of ocean, hunter accidentally dropping the leaves
of bilva, the loss of importance of ketki flower, which is now only
offered during shivaratri.
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