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Hindu Festival In Kathmandu
By KTM Metro Reporter
March 1, 2011: Kathmandu is holding one of the greatest Hindu festivals tomorrow. The day is called ‘Mahashivaratri’ means the great night of Lord Shiva. Hindus believe that Lord Shiva has appeared on this night. So, this night is in fact the birth anniversary of Lord Shiva.
Hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees visit the temple to Lord Pashupati at Gaushala in Kathmandu during the dark fortnight of the month called Falgun (Feb-March) believing that they will earn merits from visiting Lord Pashupati: another name of Lord Shiva.
Devotees used to walk for a week from the neighboring Indian states to Kathmandu when roads were not available for traveling on buses and cars. At that time, Hindus must have really earned merits from the lord.
Most of the devotees visit Dattatraya in Bhaktapur about 14 km east of Kathmandu after visiting Lord Pashupati in Kathmandu. Dattatraya is the incarnation of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesa in one. Not many temples to Dattaraya are available in the Hindu world. So, the temple in Bhaktapur is as unique as the deity that represents the Hindu Trinity.
Hundreds of Hindu holy persons called Sadhus, some totally naked from Nepal and India have assembled at Gaushala for celebrating the Mahashivaratri. Traditionally, the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) provides them with foods, firewood for twenty-four-hour bonfires for keeping them warm, and even hashish for their sustenance for four days before and four days after the Mahashivaratri and then bus fares for returning to their respective places of dwelling. They smear their bodies with the ashes from bonfires and smoke hashish believing to emulating Lord Shiva. They are either ignorant of or simply ignore the fact that Lord Shiva has never smoked hashish and smear the body with ashes but meditated most of the time.
