Significance of Shivaratri

The essence of our consciousness is Shivam. Therefore, Chidananda roopam, shivoham shivoham, means that that Supreme reality, whose spark is inside me, is Supreme auspiciousness. I am of the real form of Shiva, the auspicious all-pervading reality.

After midnight, begins a new day. Shiva finishes his dance of destruction. The dance of destruction is actually a renewal, where the old is destroyed and the new takes place. When Shiva, who is the representative form of that Supreme Being, dances this dance of destruction, the Tandava Nritya, it is said that the entire Universe shakes and shivers and everything falls to pieces. This is the renewing and destructive aspect of divinity that you see every day in the outside world and the inner world. 

When this turmoil takes places within, when the dance of destruction of Shiva takes place in our hearts, then much of the old is destroyed. All the aspects of the ego, are churned up, broken and thrown to bits by the Tandava Nritya. Only peace and blissfulness remain, which is the essence of consciousness.

According to Raja Yogis, inside the Sahasrara chakra, in the centre, is the point which is called, the “Brahma randra” – the door way of the Brahman. When one enters through that, one comes face to face with that which we call Shivam.

In the highest state of meditation, the yogi tastes the nectar that flows down. Anyone who has touched the amrita becomes so intoxicated and filled with the joy of Shivam, that nothing else is an attraction to him.

It doesn’t mean he needs to run away from the world. He could continue to be in the world but he realizes that he is free of all this and is a part of that all-pervading Shivam.

So, the Shivam or auspiciousness that we seek, is to be sought inwardly. And the destruction that takes place is our connection to the outward. 

The snake that sits around Shiva is the ancient symbol of wisdom. The symbol that signifies the tremendous energy called Para Shakti or Kula Kundalini, lies latent, coiled without action, in most people, in the Mooladhara chakra.

The whole of the process of awakening, is the awakening of that energy. And it is a gradual progress through the different chakras, till it reaches the Sahasrara chakra and becomes one with that Supreme Shivam.

Shivam is nowhere other than in our own system. 

This is the inner significance of Shivaratri.