With one God Shiva in their minds, countless people keep worshiping him with deepest feeling of love, devotion and respect longing for one moment of his darshan or divine vision. God Shiva is everything to them. He is the supreme protector, the comforter of all hearts and soother of their pains. He brings much-needed peace and internal strength.
On the occasion of the most auspicious festival of MahaShivratri devotion reaches its peak because it is the night of most elevated one the greatest God Shiva. It is also the best occasion to understand the spiritual significance associated with MahaShivratri.
Shivling symbolizes the light form of God Shiva. God is not a human being, nor does he have any bodily form. God Shiva is a divine point of subtle, sainted, self-effulgent light. Light is symbolized by an oval shape. This is why he is depicted as jyotirlinga “The symbol of light”. He is the truth, the benefactor and the most beautiful one is therefore known as Satyam Shivam Sundaram. He is also sat chit Anand Swaroop. God Shiva is Trimurti. He created the new world order of golden age through Brahma. He sustains that world through Vishnu and gets destroyed the old world of Iron Age which is filled with irreligiousness and unrighteousness through Shankar. Tripund also is a symbol of these three divine deeds and celebrated during day time. It is certainly not a routine night that we encountered at the end of each passing day. In the context of MahaShivratri, the night denotes ignorance, the absence of the light of knowledge, it is the darkness due to the existence of all-pervading five vices lust, anger, greed, attachment, and ego. It is a night of extreme irreligiousness. Today peacelessness, unrighteousness suffering wrong and simple acts have become the order of the day, but for how long can this is continued, who will provide us lasting happiness and true peace. It, therefore, requires God Shiva himself to descend into this world which is passing through the period of the extreme night of ignorance to reestablish a world of religion and values. In fact, he has already descended on earth in the ordinary corporeal medium of Prajapita Brahma to assure them an era of peace, happiness, and prosperity on earth. This is a divine message of the sacred festival of MahaShivratri.
By remembering God Shiva with love one can get absolved of all sins. Keeping awake all through the night signifies that we should be alert in our actions, let us not be under the spell of Maya or disillusion and invite misery and suffering due to our own bad actions. Let only good action take place through us. Upvas and fast also has significance, ‘up’ means neared and ‘vas’ means to stay with. Staying with God through mind and intellect is a true spiritual significance of the fast. It also means taking a, wow, to accept only a one what is pure. During this festival, the three leaf belpatra is also offered. It means surrendering our body, mind and wealth to one God Shiva and staying pure in thoughts, words, and actions. God Shiva is the supreme father of all. We are all souls sainted point of light. We come from paramdham, a world beyond this physical world that is our original home. We descend from there on to earth, take bodies in this corporeal world. We end up performing actions that bring sorrow. Then we start invoking him. He hears our heartfelt please, seeking liberation. He descends and we surrendered on to him. This is symbolized by a pot full of water above the shivling with a tiny hole at the bottom so that the water falls drop by drop on the shivling so as we celebrate MahaShivratri, it is important that we understand its meaning, significance of its purpose and imbibe the spirit of this great festival in our daily life.