Maha Shivaratri - Part 2

MAHA SHIVARATRI - PART 2

--- Continuation from the post Maha Shivartri - Part 1 
https://divinediyaas.blogspot.in/2018/02/maha-shivaratri-part-1.html

         Maha Shivaratri is considered as important day for women, as married women will pray to Lord Shiva for the health and longevity of their husband and children, unmarried women will pray for a life partner like Lord Shiva, as Lord Shiva is being considered as ideal husband. 

            It is believed that on this night worshiping Lord Shiva and following all the rituals, will please the Lord the most, by pleasing Shiva, one will get rid of their past sins and gets salvation (Moksha). The story behind this festival is explained in 'Maha Shivaratri - Part 1' post.

Rituals Followed During Maha Shivaratri:

           Devotees observe full fast on that day with only fruits and juices. 

1. On the day of Maha Shivaratri one should get up early in the morning and take bath in a holy river, else adding black sesame seeds into the water and taking bath will purify our body and soul.

2. After taking bath, devotees will take Sankalph (oath) to observe full fasting on that day and break the fasting on the next day with self determination and seeking blessings of Lord Shiva to complete the Sankalph without any obstacles.

3. People who observer fasting will take only one single meal a day (withour, rice, pulses and wheat. Mostly will eat Sabudhana khichidi)

4. Visiting Shiva temples and performing pooja to Lord Shiva in the morning time and abstain from all types of foods during the fasting, except milk and fruits.

5. In the evening time, devotees will take bath again before doing Shiva pooja / visiting the temple.

6. Shiva pooja should be done in the night also. Pooja can be performed either one time or four times during the night.  The whole night is divided into four part to perform shiva pooja four times in the night. 

7. Performing Abhisekam of Shiva Lingam using six important liquids has important significance of it. They are milk, Yogurt, Honey, Ghee, Sugar, Sandalwood paste and water.

• Milk - is for blessing of purity and piousness
• Yogurt - is for prosperity and family lineage
• Honey - is for Sweet Speech
• Ghee - is for Victory
• Sugar - is for happiness
• Sandalwood Paste- is for grace and blessings
• Water - (mixed with Ganges water ) is for purity and peace

  In addition to these Abhishekams, at temple several other special abhishekams are also performed as mentioned below,

• Panchgavyam - It's a mixture of five ingredients Cow's milk, Curd, ghee, Cow's urine and Cow dung) - Removes all sins
• Panchamrutham - Gives wealth. It's a mixture of Ripened banana, sugar candy, jaggery, seedless dates and dry fruits.
• Cooked Rice (Annam) - Gives Majestic life
• Turmeric - For healing, free from diseases
• Bhasma (Holy ashes / Viboothi) - for eluding great sins
• Rice powder - to free from all debts.  

8. After the Abhiseka rituals, Bilva leaves will be placed on top of Shiva Linga to cool the deity. Usually, garland of bilva leaves will be decoreated over the Shiva lingam.

9. After that, Viboothi / bhasma, Chandan and kumkum will be applied to Shiva Lingam, followed by lighting diyas (lamps), dhoops (Scented cones) and will take Deepardhana (Aradhana using fire) for Lord Shiva and chant Lord Shiva's names 'OM NAMASHIVAYA !!!'

10. Devotees will keep vigil on this whole night and break the fast on the next day after taking bath and worshiping Lord Shiva, before the end of Chaturdasi Tithi (14th day).

Chanting Maha Mrityunjay mantra is considered as very auspicious on this day, followed by 'Lingaashtakam', ' Shiva Puranam', 'Shiva Panjacharam' etc.

Shiva's Maha Mrityunjay mantra

|| OM Trayambakam Yajamahe
Sugandhim Pushtivardhanam
Urvarukamiva Bhandhanan
Mrityor Mokshiya Maamirtaat ||

Meaning:

I worship thee, Three eyed god, Lord Shiva, who is fragrant, nourishes and grows all beings. As the ripened cucumber liberated from its bondage to the creeper when its fully ripens, May he liberate us from death, for the sake of immortality.

Significance of Bilva leaves
     
           Bel (Bilva) leaves are special and having importance in worshiping Lord Shiva. Bilva leaves area from Wood apple tree, this leaf is trifoliate which signifies Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Since these leaves has cooling effect, they are offered / placed on Shiva lingam, to soothe the heat of the lingam (Lord Shiva). 

             The three segments of the leaf represents three Gunas, Tamas (Physical body), Rajas (Emotion) and Satvic (Intellect). The center segment of the leaf is taller and more in ratio, (i.e) Satvic guna of this leaf is more compared to other two gunas, hence this bilva / bel leaves are having more capacity to absorb and emit satvic frequencies. It is believed that even terrible karma will be vanishesd, if offer bilva / bel leaves to Lord Shiva.

         Consuming Bilva leaves will alleviates disease caused by excess of Vata and kapha.

Six pointed Star 

         The union of Shiva Sakthi merge is denoted as six pointed star, which is Lord Muruga (Son of Lord Shiva). This six pointed star symbol was stolen by pagans and many. 

Lord Muruga in a Six pointed star

        In some other states of India, there is a different story behind this festival 'Maha Shiva rathri'. It is believed that this is the day, when Lord Shiva married Goddess Parvati in front of Brahma, Vishnu, Saraswati, Lakshmi and all the gods.

Lord Shiva family picture with Lord Ganesha and Lord Murugan (Karthikeya)

Mount Kailash

             Mount Kailash, the highest mountain and the center of the Earth, which is abode of Lord Shiva, where he sits in a perpetual meditation along with his wife Parvati. It is the pillar of the world and is located at the heart of six mountain ranges symbolizing lotus flower.

             Mount Kailash is the most mysterious, secret, sacred  and  a holy mountain, Hindus does 'Parikrama' (Circumambulation around the mountain), a single round around the mountain (52 Km) equals to one turn of wheel of life and removes all our bad karma. In Hinduism, Mount Kailash is considered as paradise, ultimate destination of souls and spiritual center of the world. From this mountain flows four longest rivers of Asia, Indus, Sutlej, Brahmaputra and Ghaghara, stretches to four quarters of the world and dividing the world into four regions.

            This Mountain is not climbed by anyone till now, whereas Mount Everest which is higher than Kailash has been climbed by many people. Nandi, the bull is the gatekeeper for Mount Kailash, there are many mysteries unresolved about this mountain. It is a cosmic axis and nodal point of Earth. 
             At 15,000 ft above sea level, it's a massive black rock of 22,000 ft height (6714 meters), at the foothills of Kailash there are 2 holy lakes Manasarovar and Rakshatal . Crescent shaped Rakshatal is the lake of demons, created by King Ravana to perform strict penance, to please Lord Shiva.  It is salt water lake with no aquatic species over there, it is stormy even in calm weather condition.
           Manasarovar lake remains calm irrespective of the weather conditions, 'Manas' means Mind or consciousness, 'Sarovar' means lake, Manasarovar means Lake of Consciousness and enlightenment. It is a sacred lake and in round shape like Sun. These two lakes represents Solar and lunar forces.

   All vedic symbols, concepts, science are stolen by west. 

Armenia, Wheel of eternity

Star of David in Judaism (jews)

       Khazars also used this six pointed star and no experts are able to crack the symbolic representation of Six pointed star used by Khazars

Six pointed star excavated at Khazar site

           
Shiva lingam around the world

         At Petra, the civilization around this Shiva linga came to end, after it was vandalised.

Shiva Lingam at Petra. 

  The ancient shiva lingam found at Omsk City, Russia. It is called as Omphalos and worshiped by Ancient Greeks, Egyptians followed by Romans.

Shiva Linga at Amsk city, Russia

     Omphalos is the powerful symbolic stone worshiped by ancient Europeans, considered as 'navel of the world'. Of course, it's our Shiva linga black stone, the seed of Human DNA fallen from space. There are many greek mythological stories about this Omphalos. This stone has been found in several places like Thebes, Karnak in Egypt, ancient Levant, Cuzco in modern Peru, Sumerian city of Eridu (Modern day Iraq). But, the one which is found at Delphi, Greece is very famous one and it has been kept in the museum. 

     Khazars worshiped Shiva Lingam before Judaism. In the picture below, Shiva lingam is wrapped by serpent, being worshiped with water. 

Khazars worshiping Shiva Lingam

      Not only in Shiva lingam and Lord Shiva, Serpents have been used in many ancient worshiping around the world. Like pictured above, Khazars worshiped Shiva Lingam with serpent around it.

 There are some reasons for using serpents in ancient times as symbolic representations 

Here is the explanation for that. It is related to Kundalini in Hinduism. 

            On this festival day, lets pray Lord Shiva, get his blessings and raise our consciousness.

 OM NAMASIVAYA !!!!

Karthigai Deepam - Part 2

Karthigai Deepam / Thirukarthigai / Karthika Pournami

Continued from Karthigai Deepam - Part 1
https://divinediyaas.blogspot.in/2017/11/karthigai-deepam-part-1.html


             In this year 2017, Karthigai month starts on November 17th, Friday. Every day in this month, by 6 in the evening, a pair of earthenware diyaas will be lighted in front of every house. Karthigai - 8th month of the year, when sun enters into Scorpio / Vrishchika sign. The importance of this month are

• Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu are equally worshiped on this month. 
• Lord Vishnu is worshiped with Tulasi and perform Satyanaryana pooja 
• Every Monday (Somavaram), special pooja and Abhishekam will be performed at Lord Shiva's temple. 

Sangu Abhishegam (Conch Shower) at Shivan Temple for Karthigai Somavaram

• During this month, many devotees take Ayyappa Deeksha, workship Lord Ayyappa and continue vrat till Makar sankrati (Makara vilakku) 
• Lord Murugan (Subramanya Swamy) is worshiped on this month and on this day Goddess Parvati joined her six babies into one and hence called as "Aaru (meaning 6) Murugan" 

              Karthigai Deepam is also called as South Diwali, as we lit more lights during this festival than Diwali. As a tradition, earthenware diyaas are lighted with oil and cotton wicks. Colorful designer diyaas in various sizes , different rangolis with big lamps (Aanai Vilaku, Kuthu Vilaku, Annapakshi Vilaku) and diyas decorated on it, flower decoration and delicious sweets are prepared for this festival. At our home, we celebrate this festival for 3 days, starting from Bharani Deepam, the day before the Karthigai Deepam. In this year 2017, Karthigai deepam falls on December 2, 2017.

        Below are some of the practices that we follow during this month.

•  During this Karthika month, every day after sunset, we light a pair of earthenware diyas in front of the house. Note: Not to light the diyas inside in your house and take it out. My mom says,  the diyas should be taken out and then lighted, it is our tradition. Symbolically, we should not let the goddess lakshmi from our house to go out. So, we lit diyas only after taking it out of the entrance door.

• Every year, we will buy at least one pair of new earthenware diyaas, that needs to be lighted on the day of Karthigai deeepam festival. 

• Yearly once, for this festival we will take out diyas from the store room. So, will wash it and apply turmeric and kumkum on the sides of the diya and will arrange it in a big tray. Then will pour oil first, followed by cotton wicks. Generally, we take two cotton wicks, roll in it together as one wick and immerse it into the oil filled diya. 

• On the day of karthigai deepam, we place diyas on all the sides of our house, not necessary to cover the entire sides, placing one diya on each side will suffice. Not to lit the diya facing south directions.

•  It's a practice that there should be at least one diya lighted in each room of the house, including bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms, balcony. Not even one place / room in house should not be without diya. 

           India is not only colorful and diversified country, it is rich in culture and tradition. When westerns were roaming in the forest without any language, Indians were mastered in Vedas, astronomy, astrology, architectures, Business, Arthashastra (Statecraft, economic policy), Vimanika Shastra (Aerospace technology) and enriched with knowledge, people were civilised, wore silk clothes with precious ornaments, Kings ruled the country on a golden throne (Sinhasan / Simhasanam) with the guidance of Chief Advisor. There are many ignorant people out there in WESTERN MAYAA !!! (Illusion), making fun out of India's Culture, traditions and praising western food, culture and thinking. Listen !!! this so called western is just 1500 years old, there is no way to compare our ancient rich Indian culture with the western. 
          Before many thousand years, Indians calculated that there are 9 planets (Navagraha, we worship Navagraha and thats the reason in all dravidian style hindu temple, Navagraha is placed), also accurately figured stars (constellation) in the space, we have 27 constellations in Indian vedic astrology occupying 360º in the zodiac, 27 nakshthras are ruled by 9 planets 'Navagraha'.

         Each star is having 4 quarters / pada (Exact position of the planet), each pada is 3º 20' (3 degrees, 20 minutes), 4 * 3º 20' = 13º 20' for each star. In other terms, it takes moon about one day to pass one constellation, you can see today's star in our Indian calendar. So, for one rotation (one day), moon moves 13 degrees and 20 minutes in its orbit.
           

         Now, 27 stars * 4 padas = 108 pada / padams divided by 9 planets= 12 Rasi. The first 3 stars in our system are Ashwini, Bharani and Kirtika 1st padam (total: 4+4+1 = 9 padams) into one zodiac sign (Rasi) called Aries. 

Ashwini  - 4 pada    - 13º 20'
Bharani   - 4 pada    - 13º 20'
Kirtika    - 1 pada   - 3º 20' 
------------------------------------------------------
Total       - 9 Pada    - 30º  --> One Rasi / Zodiac occupies 30 degrees, 30*12 = 360 degrees. Hence, Moon takes 27.3 days to complete one rotation around Earth, but due to earth's rotation around the sun, moon takes 2 more days to patch up with the starting point in it's orbit. For each day when the moon rotates, its position changes with stars, the change in position is 13º 20'. In India, we don't have fixed dates for festivals, we celebrate festival in accordance with stars and solar months. That is the reason why stars, moon dates (Tithi) plays important role in finding dates for festivals, special occasions etc.  

               

Bharani Deepam 

            Karthigai Deepam is preceded by Bharani Deepam. When Bharani Nakshthra appears in the sky, a small ghee diya will be lighted inside the main deity of Lord Shiva temple, using this ghee diya 5 big lamps will be lighted which represents five aspects of Lord Shiva (five natural elements). People go to Lord Shiva's temple and lit diyas.

Karthigai Deepam day

Pooja Procedure at home

            Before pooja, we clean the swami room, neatly wipe the gods photos, idols and wash the pooja utensils. After wiping the pooja room shelf / slab, rangoli with rice flour will be drawn and will apply turmeric, kum kum on gods photos and arrange it back to the shelf. Also, will draw rangoli using rice flour in front of the house main door, will beautify the main door by placing flowers / garlands and also will apply turmeric and Kum Kum dots on the sides of the main door. As per tradition, only after watching Thiruvannamalai Deepam on the Arunachala Hills in the evening, we light diyas at home. 

Rangoli near the main door, picture taken after Maha Deepam Darshan.

           On Karthigai Deepam day, as per my family tradition, we do pooja in the morning. But, in my mother's place we do pooja in the evening,  it depends upon one's family tradition. Elderly women in our house will place Lord Shiva's photo and Lord Murugan's photo on a pooja stand, then decorate the god's photo with flower garlands and place diyas on two sides of the palagai manai (small low height stool used to sit during pooja). Also will keep new earthenware diyas in front of the pooja stand.  We prepare neivedhyam (food offered to god) for pooja, the neivedhyam / Prasadhams are explained below. 

            In the decorated pooja room, will place the prepared prasadhams in front of god, along with a tray of fruits, betel leaves, betel nuts and a coconut. In a separate tray will place Maa vilkau (Sweet made out of rice flour) at the center and fill it with ghee with a cotton wick to lit. At the time of pooja, we lit maa vilaku, light Dashagam (scented cones), agarbathis (scented sticks) and  take aaradhana with agarbathis. Then, break a coconut into 2 pieces and keep it back in the prasasham tray. As per my family tradition, we do pooja in the morning.

Say it loudly 
'Annamalaiyaruku Arogara, Annamalaiyaruku Arogara, Annamalaiyaruku Arogara',

 'Thennatudaya Shivanea potri, en natavarkum iraiva potri potri', 
then sing any Lord Shiva's songs, Lord Murugan's songs (Kandha Shasti Kavasam)
           
         In the evening, after watching Thiruvannamalai Deepam, we watch it in live a program,  then light diya in pooja room first and then start lighting the lamps everywhere in the house. The entire house will be filled with brightness of oil earthenware diyaas, also place diyas on the rangoli.

Prasasham preparations

Pori urundai, nel pori urundai, sweet appam and maa vilaku.

Maa vilaku:

     It is one of the important mandatory sweet for this festival. Maa - rice flour, vilaku - lamp, a lamp made out of rice flour. Placing this maa vilaku during pooja and lighting fire on this maa vilaku using ghee is considered as auspicous and brings prosperity to the house.

Maa vilaku preparation:

            Mix fine rice flour, powdered jaggery, cardamon powder with little bit of ghee. Mix all these ingredients thoroughly with bare hand. Jaggery will start to  melt due to hand's heat and start to combine with the mixture. No need to add water for this, if you add water shelf life of Maa vilaku will be less, traditionally will use only ghee as a binding agent. After forming it as dough, shape like a diya and pour ghee and then place cotton wicks.


Pori Urundai :

Sweet Appam:

Kuppa Karthigai (Third Day of the festival)
           
               On this day we place diyas in washrooms, near Garbage area and utility areas. The vapor from the oil diyas kill bacterias due to the moist formed in this winter season.
             

Some of the pictures of Karthigai Deepam at my house

- Aarthi Thiyagarajan