Mahashivarathri was a blast. Probably, there has never been a more exuberant crowd. Spillover from Ananda Alai – that’s for sure. From the time the music started, people were out of their chairs, clapping and dancing to the music for nearly 12 hours straight. And our wonderful musicians kept everyone up and alert throughout the night. Wasifuddin Dagar sang a powerful offering to Shiva that had everyone in a meditative trance, and Kailash Kher got the place cranked up and rocking with his popular tunes. The Colonial Cousins and our own Sounds of Isha had everyone hopping till 6am.
Why this need to keep everyone up throughout the night is just this, Mahashivarathri is a tremendous possibility. On this night, there is a natural upsurge of energy in the human system because of a certain relationship between the sun, moon and the planet. To make use of this, we spend the night with our spines erect, alert and aware, so that whatever sadhana we are doing, there is great assistance from nature, and this natural upward movement happens. All evolution in a human being is fundamentally an upward movement of energy. Every practice, every sadhana that a spiritual seeker does is only to move his energies upward.
So on Mahashivarathri, these wonderful musicians are here to keep us up. Otherwise, if you just sit as a physicality, your body will slowly crawl under the chair in a few hours’ time. Unless you let yourself be touched by another dimension beyond the physical, you will only understand the compulsions of the body. But if you keep this life intense enough so that the physical will not be a limitation, you can touch a dimension beyond the physical, and suddenly you will find time is not a problem.
So that is why singing, jumping and dancing throughout the night. So that at least momentarily, you should transcend the limitations of the physical. If you touch it for a moment, if you touch a dimension beyond your physicality, you will see — suddenly your eyeballs are rolled back for the whole night. I want you to know this. Not just hear about these things, not just read about this stuff here and there, I want you to know it. And Mahashivarathri is the best possible night for a spiritual seeker. There is no better night.
It’s been eight days of Mahabharat, seven days of Yaksha, an episode of In Conversations and 12 hours straight of Mahashivarathri celebrations. Have one day before Samyama…time for a round of golf.
Love and Grace,
