The Night of Lord Shiva

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Hindus all over the world celebrate the birth anniversary of Lord Shiva on the night of fourteenth day of dark fortnight of Falgun (Feb-March) in the Nepal Calendar believing he appears in a human form from phallus on this night. This day is called Maha-Shiva Ratri means the great night of Lord Shiva. However, Lord Shiva is not born of anybody; so, he has no family lineage. He is a universe, omnipresent and omnipotent for Hindus. Nepalese Hindus believe that if they can have the vision of Lord Shiva on this night means he will bless them with transcendental knowledge. Devotees visit Shiva shrines elsewhere in Nepal on this day and night. People including the Hindu pilgrims coming from across the southern border en masse visit the Pashupati temple in Kathmandu. The head of state makes especial offerings to Lord Pashupati at the temple on this night.

Devotees remain awoke the whole night on the Shiva-ratri night chanting different names of Lord Shiva usually sitting at bonfires anticipating the vision (darshan) of Lord Shiva. Hindus believe that Lord Shiva appears from luminous Phallus in a human form and blesses them on this night. Hence, apart from sadhus, common people also make bonfires in the belief that they, too, will have the vision of Lord Shiva on this night. Teenagers collect firewood, any other wood or materials suitable for bonfire and make bonfires at every neighborhood on this night. Others get peanuts, corn, potatoes and soybeans, and roast these food items on the bonfires and consume them as the blessings from Lord Shiva.

Nepalese Hindus believe that if they can have the vision of Lord Shiva on this night means he will bless them with transcendental knowledge. So, most of the Nepalese Hindus make bonfires, prepare different food items on bonfires, consider those food items as the blessings of Lord Shiva and share such food items among themselves and chant various names of Lord Shiva anticipating Lord Shiva appears in their vision on this night. If he actually does appear in their vision then he will bless them with the transcendental knowledge means they will be able to know the past, present and future lives and then they will be able to live in peace perpetually in the cosmic world. So, the Shiva-ratri night is very important for all Hindus.

Four days before the Shiva-ratri day, the head of state initiates the Shiva-ratri-offerings to Lord Pashupati in Kathmandu opening the Shiva-ratri festival. On this occasion, the head of state visits Lord Pashupati at Deopatan in Kathmandu and makes ‘maha sankalpa’ to initiate the celebration of ‘Shiva-ratri’ following the age-old tradition of rituals. The head of state also makes offerings to Lord Pashupati and sets aside the items such as food grain, holy water pots, blankets, sandalwood and so on for offering to ‘sadhus’ and other ascetic men and women visiting Lord Pashupati on the Shiva-ratri day. These holy people receive food and other items for subsistence for nine days starting four days before and ending four days after Shiva-ratri. They also receive bus fares for traveling back to their home country or districts. Hundreds of thousands of devotees from different parts of Nepal and neighboring countries visit Lord Shiva on this occasion. On the Shiva-ratri day alone, tens of thousands of devotees visit Lord Pashupati in Kathmandu.

Ascetic people called sadhus arrive at the Pashupati area in Kathmandu about four days before and leave four days after Shiva-ratri. During this period, they stay in the open area set aside for them. They pay homage to Lord Pashupati: one of many forms of Lord Shiva. They sit at bonfires called ‘dhuni’ and rub ashes on their naked bodies either to keep them warm and cozy in the chilly climate of Kathmandu at this time of a year, or to emulate Lord Shiva. The state-run ‘Guthi sansthan’ and Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) together provide them with food grain, ganza (hashish) to smoke and firewood for making bonfires for nine days. Sadhus believe that Lord Shiva loves to smoke hashish; so, the government not only allows sadhus to smoke hashish but also provides them with hashish for those days during the Shiva-ratri festival.

Lord Shiva is omnipotent and omnipresent, and is a super soul, a part of that is prevalent in all living beings. Everything in the universe including the cosmic objects such as stars, planets and so on, is a part of the super soul. Therefore, Lord Shiva is formless and limitless, represents the entire Hindu universe, and is the source of all sorts of power.

Lord Shiva is the light in darkness. He is also past, present and future in one called tri-kal. Lord Shiva is “OUM”, a three-alphabet sound, “O” represents Brahma, the creator, “U” represents Lord Vishnu, the preserver and “M” represents Lord Mahesvore, the destroyer. Thus, Lord Shiva also represents birth continuation of life and death.

Lord Shiva is also a first yogi means a practitioner of yoga. He has developed, practiced and taught yoga. Nepalese experts in yoga believe that yoga was first developed in Nepal; and so, Lord Shiva is indigenous to Nepal. These yoga experts celebrate the first day of Magha (Jan-Feb) as the anniversary of yoga in Nepal, and they have a yoga calendar.

Lord Shiva has saved the Hindu world accepting the poison called ‘kal-kut’ and holding it at his neck causing it blue and deriving the popular name ‘Nil-kantha’ from it. Once demons and deities have churned the cosmic ocean to skim off elixir called ‘amrit’. Instead, a deadly poison that could destroy the whole Hindu has surfaced from the cosmic ocean. Nobody dares to go near to it not to mention touching it. The poison has terrified demons and deities, as it might cause irreparable damage to the Hindu world. So, Lord Shiva quietly moves forward and drinks it but holds it at the neck. The poison causes extreme pain and generates tremendous heat. So, Lord Shiva goes to the high altitude area and thrusts his trident on the hard rock mountain face making three holes discharging cold water from those holes. Cold water flows from those three holes to the burning neck of Lord Shiva lying down in the lake formed by flow of the water. This lake is called Gosaikunda in the Rasuwa District in Nepal. Every year thousands of devotees visit this lake during the religious festivals held twice a year. Lord Shiva blesses every devotee with a unique vision in this lake. The river that flows in Nepal from this source is called Trishuli derived from Trishul means trident. Since then Lord Shiva has a blue neck so, he is known as ‘Nil-kantha’, too.

Lord Shiva is also Durga Bhavani depicted as an eighteen-limbed goddess. Some people believe that Lord Shiva has created this goddess, and other deities have armed her with their weapons to destroy the demons. However, others believe that Lord Shiva himself became the goddess with such an incredible power to finish off the demons. The half circle wooden block called ‘torana’ set above the main entrance to the inner sanctum of the Indresvore Mahadev in Panauti has the carved-out-of-wood eighteen-limbed Durga Bhavani at its center. The deity depicted on the ‘torana’ is actually represents the deity in the inner sanctum. So, Indresvore Mahadev is actually an eighteen-limbed Durga Bhavani.

About two thousands years ago, Hindus began depicting Lord Shiva in the forms of Phallus and human, and gave them various names to make it easier for common people to understand Lord Shiva. Phallus represents creation. Devout Hindus believe that Lord Shiva has appeared in a human form from a luminous Phallus called Lingam.

Lord Shiva in a human form is popularly depicted as an ascetic with a third eye on the forehead. The third eye is a symbol of transcendental knowledge and vision. In fact, all physical features and belongings of Lord Shiva have deep philosophical meanings. His naked body represents super soul that could not be clothed. The crescent moon and goddess of water called Ganga he wears on his matted hair symbolize that he is as cool as moon and as crystal clear and clean as the water of Ganga River. He wears serpents as ornaments around the neck, and the arms. Serpents represent danger and anger. Thus, these ornaments imply that Lord Shiva is fearless and cool even with danger at the neck, and controls anger under his arms. His rubbing of ashes on the body implies that every body is subject to reduce to ashes.

The trident he carries represents birth, continuation of life and death: the three main parts of the life cycle on earth. The hand drum called ‘damaru’ he holds is to signal the approaching super soul and power. The tiger skin he wears around his loin indicates that Lord Shiva controls emotions as ferocious as a tiger. The elephant skin he sleeps on symbolizes simplicity and control of ego.

Hindu teachers developed metaphorical rituals to make the divine teachings of Lord Shiva simple enough for common people to follow. Every ritual has a deep meaning though most of the people generally perform rituals without knowing much about the meaning.

Lord Shiva has eight forms such as “Bhava”, “Serva”, “Rudra”, “Yugra”, “Bhim”, “Mahadev”, “Isan” and “Pashupati”. The first five forms represent five life-supporting elements such as earth, water, air, fire, and ether, the sixth and seventh depict the cosmic world; and eight symbolizes super soul.

Pashupati: eighth form of Lord Shiva has several meanings, too. Several meanings of Pashupati are lord of animals, god with five faces, shepherd of souls of human kinds, master of all living beings, and freedom from darkness.

Lord Pashupati at Deopatan, Kathmandu has six faces. The four faces on the Shiva Lingam in the inner sanctum of the temple, are visible, and are facing four directions. The invisible two faces on the Lingam are one facing to the sky represents Yogesvore or Isan, and another facing to the earth represents Rudra.

Some people interpret the meaning of Pashupati as the lord of animals directly translating the two words such as ‘pashu’ and ‘pati’. Pashu means animal and pati means lord. They believe that these two words together form the word ‘Pashupati’. However, Pashupati is made up of two words such as ‘pashu’ and ‘pass’. ‘Pashu’ means people are like animals without wisdom or knowledge. ‘Pass’ means enlightenment or freedom from darkness in other words freedom from animal like status. Thus, Pashupati means the lord that takes people from darkness to light. So, the real meaning of Pashupati is freedom from darkness.

Many Hindu myths describe the origin of Lord Pashupati on the current site in Kathmandu. The myth closet to the truth may be about the origin of ‘Joti lingam” means a luminous Phallus that has appeared in this area. It is highly likely that seepage of natural gas that occurs elsewhere in the Kathmandu Valley must have caused a natural illumination on this site at that time. They put a four-faced lingam on the site of the natural burner once it has burned out, and worshipped it as Lord Pashupati. Ever since, Nepalis have been worshipping the lingam as Lord Pashupati.

Another interesting myth is that once Lord Shiva has descended to earth and enjoyed the life of an animal transforming himself to a stag with golden horns. Finding Lord Shiva absent from his abode called ‘kailash’ in the cosmic world for quite some time, his divine spouse Parvati goes to other deities such as Vishnu, Brahma and Indra for assistance in finding the whereabouts of Lord Shiva. When Vishnu, Brahma and Indra look through their transcendental vision they see him living as a stag and grazing in the forest called Shelshmantak at Deopatan on earth. So, all four of them descend from the cosmic world to earth. Finding the golden horn stag quietly grazing in the Shelshmantak forest, all of them seize the stag by the golden horns simultaneously. When the stag attempts to escape from them, the horns are broken into pieces. Some of them have flown to the cosmic world; other pieces have gone to the underground and some have remained on earth. So, the piece of golden horn remained on earth has been worshipped as Lord Pashupati at Deopatan since then.

According to the chronicles called Gopalraj Vamshavali compiled during the period of 1382-1395, Nepalis have began worshipping Lord Pashupati at the current site since the tenth century B.C. Then, Licchavi King Supuspa Dev built the first temple to Lord Pashupati on this site. Since then, kings belonging to various dynasties that ruled Nepal had either rebuilt or renovated this temple several times before bringing it into the current shape. Currently, it is a two-tiered Nepalese style temple decorated with meticulously carved silver doors, and with gold gilded brass roofs supported by wooden struts with carved-out figures of various deities. The lord is in the inner sanctum in the form of a Phallus with six faces: four faces facing to four directions, one to the sky and another to the earth. The two faces facing to the sky and to the earth are not visible to the human eyes. This is one of the oldest Hindu temples in the world.

A huge brass bull popularly known as ‘nandi’ sits on a stone platform facing to the southern gate of the temple to Lord Pashupati at Deopatan. The southern entrance to the courtyard of the temple is also the main entrance for devotees to enter the temple courtyard. So, devotees entering the courtyard first face the huge back of ‘nandi’ with large testis. Some foreign tourists complain that the public other than Hindus, Bhotes and monkeys have no access to Lord Pashupati; so, while visiting Lord Pashupati at Deopatan in Kathmandu, they have to return from Pashupati just taking a look at the large testis on the back of brass bull ‘nandi’.

King Ansu Verma adopted Lord Pashupati as a state god, and saivinism as the state religion. Since then, Nepal has been a Hindu state until the Interim Legislature-parliament declared Nepal a secular state in 2007.

Vajracharyas were the official priests at the temple to Lord Pashupati until King Pratap Malla replaced them with the South Indian Hindu priests that continue to serve Lord Pashupati even today. A team of priests, storekeepers, and other supporting staff members attend the lord daily. The state-run PADT provides the priests with resources for all the services required. The high incomes coming from the offerings of devotees to the lord go to the private purse of the priests.

To the dislike of many Hindu believers, since 2010, the PADT has introduced a system of charging one thousand rupees to the devotees wishing to make offerings to Lord Pashupati skipping the long line to Lord Pashupati on the occasion of Shiva-ratri. Anybody willing to visit the lord without standing on a long line for hours needs to deposit one thousand rupees in the bank account of the PADT and produce the voucher to the PADT staff that will take him/her to Lord Pashupati.

On the occasion of Shiva-ratri, priests make especial offerings to Lord Pashupati in the inner sanctum of the temple. They give a purification bath to the Pashupati-Lingam. To this end, they prepare five clay bowls each filled with the items such as cow milk, yougurt, ghee means home-made butter, honey and syrup made up of unpurified sugar called sakkhar. The priests first clean the lingam with holy water then pour one item after another on the Lingam. Thereafter, they give a sesame seed oil message to the Lingam. Then they dressed it up, draw three parallel lines of sandalwood paste on the foreheads of all four faces on the Lingam and decorate them with silver ornaments. At the end of the offerings, priests make food offerings called ‘bal-bhog’ to the Lingam.

Nepalis worship Lord Pashupati as Lord Buddha placing a crown with an idol of Lord Buddha on the Phallus twice a year: first on the eighth day of the bright forthnight of Kartik (Oct-Nov), and second on the fourth day of the bright fortnight of Magha (Jan-Feb). On the Shiva-ratri night, they worship Lord Pashupati as Lord Macchendranath: one of the incarnations of Lord Buddha. So, Lord Shiva is also Lord Macchendranath.

Tantriks worship Lord Pashupati as Lord Kirti-mukhi Bhairava, and Lord Unmat Bhairava, and offer them animal sacrifice at the southern courtyard of the Pashupati temple on every full moon day. On this occasion, they connect the Bhairavas with the southern face on the Phallus in the inner sanctum of the temple with cotton threads called ‘pashuka’ made up of three different colored yarns; and make offering of animal sacrifice to the Bhairavas following tantric rituals, directly linking between Bhairavas on the courtyard and Lord Pashupati in the inner sanctum by tri-color ‘pashuka’. The tri-color ‘pashuka’ represents Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesvore.

In addiiton, Nepalis worship Lord Shiva as Luku Mahadeo once a year and offer Him non-vegetarian foods and alcoholic beverages during the Ghode jatra festival. The Nevah community living in Kathmandu believes in that Lord Shiva once has wanted to enjoy meat and bean dishes with alcoholic drinks. So, Lord Shiva has gone hiding in a trash heap in a courtyard. Nevah people called Lord Shiva hidden in a trash heap ‘Luku Mahadeo’. They salvage Lord Shiva from the trash heap at every courtyard in Kathmandu on the occasion of the festival called Ghode Jatra, and make offerings of meat and bean dishes with flattened rice and alcoholic drinks to the lord.  

Lord Pashupati is Lord Shiva for Hindus, Lord Macchendranath for Buddhists, and Lord Bhairava for Tantriks. They are all the symbols of religious harmony in Nepal.

February 12, 2010