India Positive

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/900000-devotees-invoke-shiva-with-music-and-mantra-in-coimbatore_100160043.html

Coimbatore, Feb 26 (IANS) April, a young American artist from New
York, swears by Lord Shiva. As do the 900,000 devotees who attended
the Mahashivratri celebrations at Isha Foundation, a global non-profit
organisation, 40 km from Coimbatore.Clad in a white salwar kameez and a vermillion mark on her forehead,
the slim bespectacled blonde was in a daze.

“I was overwhelmed by the celebrations and the purification rites that
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev conducted on the day of Shivratri. I felt
completely purified and connected to a higher plane, especially
through the music that accompanied the ritual,” she told IANS after an
unusual “purification rite” christened the “pancha bhuta aradhana” at
the commune Feb 23.

She was struck by the intense energy of the Hindu deity of “creation
and destruction” and the scope of the celebration of Mahashivratri
(Night of the Lord Shiva) at the Isha Foundation, which places the
festival at the top of its events calendar.

Hina, a software programmer from the US, got the shivers after the
purification rite at the Dhyan Linga (Shiva) temple inside the
retreat. She had to be calmed down by her companions, also from the
US.

“They were possessed by the divine energy of the Lord,” Swami Patanga,
a spokesperson for the retreat, explained at the end of the rite.

Led by mystic and yoga expert Jaggi Vasudev, the organisation, with
150 centres worldwide and over 250,000 meditators and volunteers, is
engaged in holistic living through yoga and inner transformation,
spreading environment awareness, social forestry and rural education.

Isha Foundation is spread across 145 lush acres at the foot of the
Vellingiri Hills in the Nilgiri biosphere in Tamil Nadu (near the
Karnataka border).

Nearly 900,000 devotees – including 5,000 foreigners and celebrities –
had assembled at the retreat to celebrate the festival with a
nightlong carnival of prayers, religious chants, meditation, yoga,
music and dance.

Billed as the biggest in the country, the Shivratri celebration, in
its 15th year, was opened to the media for the first time.

Throughout the day, devotees kept trickling in to the venue in buses,
three-wheelers and cars from all over the country, braving the rising
mercury and the scorching sun.

Music and sacred mantra were the essence of the celebrations. The star
performers of the live concerts that continued till wee hours of the
morning were the Gundecha Brothers of the Dhrupad Gharana from Ujjain,
Sounds of Isha (the Isha Foundation band) from the commune and the
Indian Ocean from Delhi.

The Shivaratri celebrations began at 5.40 p.m. with a special
consecration rite by Vasudev at the Dhyana Linga temple – a
cylindrical dome-shaped shrine of Lord Shiva built with bricks and
granite, in the heart of the retreat.

The consecration rite, “pancha bhuta aradhana”, was a variation of a
form of yoga known as the “bhuta shuddhi” or purification of elements
for good health and de-stressing.

The seer lighted the ritual fire, bathed the giant lingam in the
sanctorum of the temple and offered flowers – to the beat of drums,
music and dance. At the end of the hour-long rite, most of the
devotees swooned apparently “with the intense cosmic energy generated
by the music, primordial beats of the drums, chants, incense and the
music”.

The purification rite was a precursor to the main celebrations later
in the night – which started from 8.30 p.m. on a stretch of even
ground encircled by hills, coconut groves, flowering plants and
tropical trees.

Later in the evening, the seer clad in a saffron drape flagged off the
festivities.

Shivratri is the 14th day of every lunar month or the day before the
new moon. Of the 12 Shivaratris that occur in a calendar year,
Mahashivratri, celebrated in February-March, is spiritually the most
significant.

“Once upon a time, India had 365 festivals – one for every occasion,
but changes in lifestyles have reduced the number of festivals.
Mahashivratri, however, stands out as a festival of a different kind
because of the planetary positions, which creates a natural upsurge of
energy, which make people react in different ways. This energy must be
used in the best possible to raise one’s system by a notch,” Vasudev
said.

The connotations of Shivratri were diverse, he explained. While some
felt that it was day Shiva, the Adi Guru, became enlightened, many
believed it was the day he defeated his enemies. “For householders, it
signifies the great celestial wedding of Shiva and Parvati. It was
also the day, according to myths, when Kubera, the thief and the
gambler, was granted a place in Shivalok (Shiva’s home) and made the
custodian of his wealth,” he said.

By dawn, over 900,000 devotees, both the common man and the
celebrities – danced wildly to the music of the Delhi-based rock band
Indian Ocean, along with their guru, in a state of trance and abandon.