Hin­duism, for more than 10,000 years, has prop­a­gat­ed the be­lief that there is one Supreme Be­ing who man­i­fests Him­self when evil over­takes the world.

Wednes­day, Feb­ru­ary 26, 2025, is one of the most an­tic­i­pat­ed days on the Hin­du re­li­gious cal­en­dar. Hin­dus across the world will ob­serve the an­nu­al Ma­ha Shiv­ara­tri. Un­like Di­vali, which has the re­li­gious, so­cial sig­nif­i­cance and im­por­tance, and is more wide­ly cel­e­brat­ed by the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, Ma­ha Shi­va Raa­tri is a call for devo­tees to rise from spir­i­tu­al slum­ber.

One of these man­i­fes­ta­tions is known as the Lord Shi­va, who is im­aged as a fear­ful one with mat­ted hair, a ser­pent around his neck and a tri­dent weapon (in his hand).

The fes­ti­val is cel­e­brat­ed in ho­n­our of God Shi­va. Shiv­ara­tri means “The Great Night of Shi­va.” It is a ma­jor fes­ti­val in Hin­duism and marks a re­mem­brance of “over­com­ing dark­ness and ig­no­rance.” It is ob­served by re­mem­ber­ing Shi­va and chant­i­ng prayers, fast­ing and med­i­tat­ing. Virtues such as self-re­straint, hon­esty, non-in­jury and for­give­ness are en­cour­aged.

Hin­dus al­so be­lieve that “Om,” the sound of the cre­ative vi­bra­tion, is the moth­er of all sounds. It is the in­tel­li­gent cos­mic en­er­gy of “Om” that is­sues forth from Lord Shi­va. “Om” is the man­i­fes­ta­tion of Lord Shi­va and it is the cre­ator and sub­stance of all mat­ter.

It is im­pos­si­ble for any­one to pro­vide a full ex­pla­na­tion of the na­ture of The Supreme Lord Shi­va. Hin­dus be­lieve He is the cause­less, birth­less, eter­nal ex­is­tence of wis­dom. He knows the past, the present and the fu­ture, as it is his knowl­edge and cre­ative force that per­vades all of cre­ation.

He (Lord Shi­va) was born as the moon from His mind and sun from His eyes; as Vaayu (wind) and Praana (life) from His ear and from His mouth as Ag­ni and in­fused the cos­mic egg, caus­ing it to burst forth in a big bang ini­ti­at­ing the next stage of cre­ation. Of­fer­ing obla­tion in the fire of a ya­j­na is a to­ken or re-cre­ation at a minia­ture lev­el of the ini­tial macro­cos­mic phe­nom­e­non.

The fes­ti­val is ded­i­cat­ed to the Hin­du God Shi­va, and is par­tic­u­lar­ly im­por­tant in the Shaivism tra­di­tion of Hin­duism. Ma­ha Shiv­ara­tri is cel­e­brat­ed at night and un­like oth­er Hin­du fes­ti­vals which in­clude ex­pres­sion of cul­tur­al rev­el­ry; this is a solemn event, no­table for its in­tro­spec­tive fo­cus, fast­ing and med­i­ta­tion on Shi­va.

Shi­va Raa­tri is ob­served on the 14th day of the lu­nar month of Phal­gun, in the dark half of the moon phase. In 2025, Shi­va Raa­tri ob­ser­vance will be Feb­ru­ary 26 and will be cel­e­brat­ed for a 12-hour pe­ri­od, dis­trib­uted in four parts, three-hour seg­ments of the night.

The ob­ser­vances will com­mence on the evening of the 26th at 6 pm. The seg­ments should then be 6 pm-9 pm; 9 pm-12 mid­night; 12 mid­night-3 am; and 3 am-6 am. Dur­ing each seg­ment, wor­ship is con­duct­ed in sev­er­al forms at all our mandirs and oth­er places of wor­ship. There will be Bha­jans (sa­cred songs) and pu­jas (prayers) through­out the night.

Devo­tees at­tend the mandirs (tem­ples) and oth­er sa­cred places with their dhatur and man­dara flow­ers, gar­land, bael leaves, Prasad and most im­por­tant­ly their ‘dhaar’ (liq­uid of­fer­ing) to per­form the re­li­gious act of ‘ab­hishek’ on the Lord Shi­va Lingam (im­age). ‘Ab­hishek’ is con­duct­ed with the of­fer­ing of milk, da­hee, ghee, hon­ey, cane juice, white rice, til, flow­ers and bael leaves dur­ing each seg­ment of the night.

The Lingam is re­gard­ed as a votary ob­ject that sym­bol­is­es the God Shi­va and is revered as an em­blem of gen­er­a­tive pow­er. An­cient San­skrit texts such as the Ma­hab­hara­ta and Pu­ranas re­late nar­ra­tives that iden­ti­fy the lingam as the Phal­lus of Shi­va.

Oth­er aus­pi­cious acts such as ‘dhyaan’ or med­i­ta­tion, and rep­e­ti­tion con­gres­sion­al­ly of the sa­cred mantra of Lord Shi­va, es­pe­cial­ly ‘Aum Namah Shiv­aya,’ are chant­ed through­out the night.

Many peo­ple in to­day’s so­ci­ety are so bound by ma­te­r­i­al life that leaves them in a state of spir­i­tu­al slum­ber. Chas­ing af­ter the mi­rage and delu­sion of world­ly gains – sec­u­lar ed­u­ca­tion, jobs, mon­ey, po­si­tions, pres­tige, pop­u­lar­i­ty, fame, cars, hous­es, hol­i­days, leisure and en­ter­tain­ment, etc. —many peo­ple have lost their moor­ings and spir­i­tu­al com­pass.

Every hu­man be­ing is in­trin­si­cal­ly di­vine, but thoughts, in­ap­pro­pri­ate la­tent ten­den­cies and be­hav­iour­al ex­pres­sion are less than di­vine. Shi­va Raa­tri re­minds Hin­dus and non-Hin­dus that the state of spir­i­tu­al slum­ber is dam­ag­ing to the soul. If per­sons do not rise from such a state, the on­ly ex­pec­ta­tion they can have is the con­tin­ued world­ly mis­eries which they ex­pe­ri­ence.

Hap­py Shi­va Raa­tri to all!