SIVARATRI CELEBRATIONS

[Krsna Das]

Dandavat Pranamas to everybody !

All glories to SriSri Radha-Krsna and Lord Siva !

Sivaratri is fast approaching, and how will you be celebrating this festival?

We, Rupanuga-Vaisnavas, under the guidance of Sri Guru, should celebrate this great festival, for without Lord Sada-Siva's blessings, one cannot attain even a tinch of devotion to SriSri Radha Krsna.

We should also observe fast on this day, just like we observe ekadasi fasts for Sri Sri Radha-Madhava.

We should offer all kinds of paraphernalia to Lord Siva, after offering it first to SriSri Radha-Krsna. When we will offer Krsna-prasadam to Lord Siva, he will surely be satisfied with our devotion, and bestow his blessing on us, for Krsna is very dear to Siva, and Siva is very dear to Ksrna.

While offering Krsna-prasadam to Lord Siva, we should offer these prayers, with heart. These prayers have been composed by our gaudiya vaisnava acaryas for glorifying Lord Siva, and we must follow in there footsteps (because "mahajan yena gatah sah panthah"):




vrindavanavani-pate! jaya soma soma-maule
sanaka-sanandana-sanatana-naradedya
gopisvara! vraja-vilasi-yuganghri-padme
prema prayaccha nirupadhi namo namas te



(Sankalpa-kalpadruma 103)



O Protector of Vrindavana! O Soma, all glories to you! O You, whose forehead is decorated with the moon, and who is worshipable by the sages headed by Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana and Narada!
O Gopishvara! Desiring that you bestow upon me prema for the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radha- Madhava, who perform joyous pastimes in Vraja-Dhama , I offer my unlimited obeisance’s unto you, time and again.




muda gopendrasyatmaja bhuja parisranga nidhaye
sphurad gopirvrndair yam iha bhagavatam pranayibhih
bhajadbhistair bhaktyas vamabhilasitam praptam acirad
yamitire gopisvaram anudinam tam kila bhaje


(Vraja-Vilasa-Stava)


I daily worship Gopishvara Mahadeva, who is situated on the bank of Yamuna. That very Gopishvara was worshipped with deep devotion by the Gopis, and he quickly fulfilled their desire to attain a supremely precious jewel, in the form of the embrace of the son of Nanda-Maharaja himself !



When Lord Siva is satisfied, Krsna will automatically be satisfied with us, and if we are able to obtain even a drop of Krsna-prema, then our lives will be automatically successful.


Jai Gopeswara Mahadeva !

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam all:

At my temple (A Saiva temple) there will be full abhishekhams to the lingam shrine at 7PM, 12 midnight, 3AM, and 6 AM. I fully intend to stay the whole night this year, but plans may change. (for some odd reason Sivaratri seems to bring out the oddest of souls sometimes, ones who want to talk, or brag, or westerners thinking its a big party (read smoking of marijuana) ... in that case, I'll leave, and Lord Siva will contend with them.)

For me its about as austere a festival as you can get so even the word 'festival' seems a bit out of place.

I haven't been for a few years as I had next day work commitments or didn't feel up to it. This year it feels different. The Sri Lankan Tamils who do stay all night also stay up the whole of the next day, not taking sleep until the next evening. (Saidevoji, is this the same in India?) I have never been able to do this for lack of will.

The Sivalingam here was consecrated on Sivaratri of 1982 with waters from an abhishekhanm from a puja done to it at Chidambaram temple before being transported here.

So I wish anyone partaking an auspicious night.

Aum Namasivaya

[satay]

namaskar Eastern,

Which night are you guys cleberating Shivratri? I think our temples here are cleberating on Friday night i.e. fast all day friday do puja till friday night /sat morning. But I received an email from a temple in california that is celebrating on Thursday night.

So which one is correct?



Vannakkam all:

At my temple (A Saiva temple) there will be full abhishekhams to the lingam shrine at 7PM, 12 midnight, 3AM, and 6 AM.
Aum Namasivaya

[smaranam]

namaskar Eastern,

Which night are you guys cleberating Shivratri? I think we temples are cleberating on Friday night i.e. fast all day friday do puja till friday night /sat morning. But I received an email from a temple in california that is celebrating on Thursday night.

So which one is correct?

namaskar
Our Temple says 12th Feb (Friday)

[Krsna Das]

In India, per the Vaisnava Calender, we will be celebrating Sivaratri on Friday (12th Feb 2010), and then next day we should do pAraN (open our fast) between 07:01 and 10:44 AM.

[Krsna Das]

One more suggestion - I think all of you will be atleast observing fasts. if so, please also inquire from your temples that what wil be the correct time to do pAraN.

When the fast is opened at correct time, the fast is considered to be complete.

[saidevo]

namaste EM.

Maha Sivaratri at the Natarajar Shrine, Chidambaram, Tamilnadu
(http://www.chidambaramnatarajartemple.com/)

During the Maha Sivaratri festival in the Tamil month of Masi (mid-February to mid-March), four kala-puja's and a laksharcana are performed on the Sivaratri (night) besides the prescribed kala-puja's for the day; after the third kala-puja in the night has been completed, an image of Somaskanda on rshabha-vahana goes round the four car streets, and, on completion of this ambulation, the fourth kala-puja, which is the Ardha-jama-puja, is performed to Nataraja. The abhishekams to Candramaulisvara on Sivaratri day endow the entire atmosphere with an even greater measure of sancity.

Check here for Shiva Maheshvara's assurance to his devotees:
http://www.mahashivratri.org/lord-shivas-assurance.html

[Eastern Mind]

namaskar Eastern,

Which night are you guys cleberating Shivratri? I think we temples are cleberating on Friday night i.e. fast all day friday do puja till friday night /sat morning. But I received an email from a temple in california that is celebrating on Thursday night.

So which one is correct?

Here we're doing it on Thursday. The panchang we use is from Sri Lanka and has Toronto timings on it, but we shift it to our times. It depends on the panchang, who is calculating, etc. Some don't take time zones into consideration either. Some temples will also move it to weekends out of convenience to devotees. Friday the 12th in India and Thursday the 11th here would overlap by 11.5 hours.

Aum Namasivaya

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam again: I did some checking around North America's bigger temples out of curiousity. This is a brief list. Clearly there is no right or wrong. I am no expert on panchangs and why they might vary.

11 New York Ganesha, Atlanta Sivan, Baltimore Murugan, California Siva-Vishnu
12 Houston Meenakshi, Boston Lakshmi, Minnesota, Pittsburg Venkateshwara, Malibu Venkateshwara

Aum Namasivaya

[satay]

Thanks Eastern and others. I think I will celebrate according to Indian time and date. So I will follow your temple's timeline Eastern.