Shiva murti at the Blue Star Centre, Trinidad and Tobago

A favourite time of the year is here: Maha Shivratri. While I usually am at the Blue Star Centre in Claxton Bay, this year I am observing the night with my brother and his community.

My mom was the one with the great love for Shiva, I lean more towards love for the Devi, the feminine. Shivratri was a favourite night while I was growing up because of the chanting - like the rest of my family I really like singing. There was also a bit of challenge in being able to stay awake the entire night. As I've gotten older there is still the love for chanting but also a deeper awareness of the bhava (emotion) and offering of self in devotion and humility and prayer. There is power in mantras that have been repeated with devotion over time, there is energy that can lift us and we are carried through the night. Connecting to Shiva and observing this night is, for me, also a way of connecting to the spirit of my mom.

Who is Shiva (Śiva) or what is the Shiva principle?

Shiva is the absolute, supreme, formless, changeless reality. That which you seek when you are seeking liberation. One of the Trimurti, [the three primary forms of the Divine - Brahma (Brahmā) the creative force, Vishnu (Viṣṇu) the sustaining force and Shiva (Śiva) the destroying force]. An example of the destroying force of Shiva in our lives:

• night time sleep - which destroys the day that has gone, where we disappear into the void and freedom of sleep, where we let go of our ego

Shiva is the original ascetic, the first yogi who then transmitted the wisdom of yoga. Shiva is also a householder with a family, an example of the Divine Masculine. He has the power to transform what is inauspicious to the auspicious. Shiva dances the world in and out of existence. He is the stillness of meditation and the dance of dissolution. He is the silence of the mind and the sound of the world coming into existence. There are countless forms for us to connect and relate to.

What is Maha Shivraatri (Mahāśivarātri)?

The great (maha) night (raatri) of awakening, insight and dissolution (Shiva). It is a sacred night especially for those who practice yoga as it honours the adiyogi (first yogi) Shiva. It is known as an auspicious night as Shiva is also known as "The Auspicious One". It is thought that observing this night allows for Lord Shiva's blessings to manifest most freely.

When is this night observed?

Every month there is a Shivratri (the 14th day of the waning moon cycle). Maha Shivratri happens once a year following the full moon of the ancestors, on the fourteenth day of the first half of the lunar month of Magha (February-March).

How can this night be observed?

• Listen to stories of Shiva*

• Mantra Recitation - 108 recitations of Om Namah Śivāya

• Kirtan or Bhajan devotional singing to Shiva in his various forms*

• View the night sky*

• Yoga nidrā practice

• Inward āsana practice

• Meditative refuge in any form of Shiva that you like

• Fast if appropriate, or mono diet or 1 meal. If eating, choose sattvic, vegetarian foods

• Take on an Austerity [give up something you’re attached to, at least for the 24 hours]

*these are my favourites

If you are observing this auspicious time, how are you doing so?

Tan me manah śivasankalpam astu - on that - the Auspicious Will of the Divine (Śiva-Sankalpa) - may my mind dwell -

Verse from the Śiva-Sankalpa Sūkta in Rigveda.

peace,