Why Do We Celebrate Mahashivratri? Part-2
In the previous blog, we read about one of the reasons why Mahashivratri is celebrated.
We learned that Mahashivratri is the night of Lord Shiva when he wedded Goddess Parvatti and how this is a moment to celebrate, be happy, and rejoice in the union of two perfect people made to be one single entity.
We also read that there are four major reasons why Mahashivratri is celebrated and since there was a shortage of space, we could not discuss all four reasons there. So here, in this blog, we will take ahead from where we left off and see that our chances of being perfectly knowledgeable are not going for a toss.
Now, we all know that Mahashivratri is Lord Shiva’s anniversary wherein we celebrate the union of holy love each year. But more importantly, Lord Shiva also tells us that there are things more than happiness, love, and relationships and that they also need time of the year to be focussed upon.
The reason number two for celebrating Mahashivratri is the expression of anger, frustration, tension, and temper.
We all know how badly Lord Shiva loved and adored Goddess Parvati and how Goddess Parvati did everything Lord Shiva loved and desired. Their bond was inseparable. However, Daksha, the King of Daksha kingdom and father of Goddess Parvati was highly convinced that Lord Shiva was not the right husband choice for Goddess Parvati, his daughter. This is why he did not like the decision to marry them; thus, he never wanted to recognize Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva’s marriage.
Story of Daksha and Paravti
Daksha organized a Hawan (Yajna/ Homa) to celebrate a religious milestone and he held a huge feast after the same. He invited all the kings and rulers and all the Gods and Goddesses. He invited his daughter, Goddess Parvati but he did not invite Lord Shiva out of his hatred and arrogance.
When Goddess Parvati found out about this, she requested Lord Shiva to accompany her and beloved that Daksha, her father might have forgotten about the invitation to Lord Shiva.
Lord Shiva knew that Daksha hated him and thus, he denied going anywhere uninvited. He even told Goddess Parvati to rethink her decision to go there. He was sure something wrong would happen.
This is why, Goddess Parvati, was in a dilemma as to whether she should go or not. She knew that not going to the feast meant she was showing anger against her father, which was partially true but she didn’t want everyone to know about it. She also knew that going without Lord Shiva would be like adding fuel to the burning fire of Daksha's deliberate action to insult Lord Shiva and thus Goddess Parvati was mighty confused.
She also felt that she was missing her father and she wanted to visit and make things fine. So she finally decided against Lord Shiva’s wishes and told him that she was very excited and desired to attend the function.
However Lord Shiva was not in tandem with this, he still said that if Goddess Parvati wanted, she could go, but she could not expect the same from him. Also, he asked her to not lose her patience and do something irrational out of rage even if things go wrong.
Lord Shiva was sure that something wrong would happen and he wanted himself and Goddess Parvati to distance themselves from each other but when Goddess Parvati started getting angry, Lord Shiva accepted defeat and gave Goddess Parvati a heads up for the inevitable change that was about to take place.
In the gathering, Daksha made sure to repeatedly comment upon Lord Shiva and how he was an outcast and some other things that made Goddess Parvati furious and she understood that she shouldn’t have visited the feast.
After things got out of hand, she decided to raise her voice and talk against injustice by taking matters into her own hands. Since nothing she did, said or requested her father to stop doing what he was doing, she finally decided to take the drastic step ahead.
She stood at the fireplace where the Hawan was taking place and after scolding her father for his rude and unwanted behavior, she jumped into the burning fire thereby taking her life. This was a huge blow to Lord Shiva as the moment the news traveled to him about his wife’s death, he could not believe his ears and he started going frantic.
Lord Shiva started to run all around, and could not decide what to do when he lost his love. He was in a very difficult and argumentative state and he couldn’t be the rational he wanted all his people to be.
This was when he took the body of Goddess Parvati and started running around the Earth, taking long deep strides in circles so that he could find solace in something and he can be able to make his life easy.
When Lord Vishnu saw this uncontrollable behavior of Lord Shiva, he decided to do something about it. He sent his Chakra, Sudarshan Chakra, to cut down the body of Goddess Parvati in different parts because roaming around with a dead body was not a way of pain relief. It only was going to aggravate the issues.
Lord Shiva tried but he could not escape the ever-so-fast Sudarshan Chakra and thus, when the body of Goddess Parvati was cut into 51 pieces that fell all over India and now Pakistan and Bangladesh, the last piece, her heart was something Lord Shiva did not let fall and took in his heart, merged with his heart to find his solace after grief.
After this also, when Lord Shiva understood that he wasn’t at peace, he finally decided to let out a dance, in frustration, anger, grief, and in a mood of rage and temper.
Lord Shiva was feeling a lot more than he could express and thus he started to dance to let out all his feelings before it became too suffocating. Lord Shiva kept dancing and took around 108 different poses and these poses came to be known as a symbol for 108 different emotions. We will discuss this later.
This dance was done all night and came to be known as the Tandav Dance or the dance to release stress and tension and the dance was done in anger. Taandav in Sanskrit means the colossal aftermath of anger and frustration.
Since this dance went on for over the night and the entire clan on Earth witnessed the mood change in Lord Shiva with each pose and then his recovery beyond the dance, this special night is celebrated as Mahashivratri or the night of overcoming remorse, grief, anger, and frustration.
This was the second reason for celebrating Mahashivratri and thus, Mahashivratri holds a very special place in the hearts of the people.
How Does Rudraksha Hub celebrate Mahashivratri?
We are organizing a huge event of grand Maharudrabhishek in the Mahamrityunjaya Temple, Varanasi on 26th Feb 2025 from 9 AM. We would like to see you all online. Register for your name Sankalp here and connect yourself to the divine.
Let us know how we can help you and connect with us at wa.me/918542929702 or info@rudrakshahub.com and we shall be happy to help in anything you desire. Read the Part 1 of this blog here and stay tuned for the upcoming parts.
Har Har Mahadev..!!
