Shivaratri is one of the holiest nights of the year. It is the night dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva.
Lord Shiva is the one who destroys that which is old and impure, in order to make room for a new creation of that which is pure and divine. Lord Shiva annihilates our egos, our attachments and our ignorance.
Many fear Lord Shiva’s destructive capacity, and yet it is destruction for the purpose of regeneration. Without death, life cannot begin anew. Without the annihilation of old habits, attachments and ego, we cannot progress toward the goal of God realization.
The night of Shivratri is especially auspicious for winning the battle within ourselves – the battle between the Gods and the Demons, between right and wrong, between poison and nectar, between death and immortality. Let us use our puja, our prayers, our meditations on this night to pray for the divine intervention that within ourselves the good might vanquish the evil, that the nectar within us might emerge, rather than poison, that we too may be carried from death to immortality.
Swami Chidanand Saraswati
Shivratri Thoughts – Kanchi Shankaracharya
Sri Sri Ravishankar on Mahashivaratri
Swami Sivananda on Shivratri
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev on Shivarathri