SHIVARATRI

OmNamah Shivaya

Sivaratri, dedicated to Lord Shiva, is celebrated on the moonless night of the month of Phalguna, which is the fourteenth day in the krishnapaksha or dark half. Owing to a special planetary conjunction, spiritual practices done on this day are considered to be especially auspicious and beneficial. There is a reference to this in one of the Puranas, where Shiva himself tells Parvati Devi [the Divine Mother] that this day is particularly dear to him, and that those who perform the prescribed austerities on this day will be freed from all sins.

One popular story from the Puranas goes like this:

There was once a poor hunter from Varanasi. His name was Suswara. He lived with his wife and child in a small hut. Theirs was a hand-to-mouth existence. Suswara would go to the forest and hunt whatever game came his way, and thus feed his family. One particular day, he caught many small animals and birds, which he put into a sack. Encouraged by the catch, he wandered deeper into the forest in search of more game. Soon darkness set in and he turned to go home. He was a little worried as the forest was infested with dangerous animals. He did not like the idea of spending the night there. Soon it became very dark. Unable to find his way back, Suswara climbed a tree to be safe from the wild animals.
Attracted by his scent, animals came lurking under the tree. Hoping to scare them away, Suswara plucked some twigs from the tree and threw them at the animals, but to no avail. Throughout the night the animals kept prowling beneath the tree.   Suswara was unable to get even a wink of sleep. He kept vigil throughout the night. He plucked leaves from the tree, which happened to be a bilva tree, and dropped them on the ground. Unknown to Suswara, there was a Shivalinga at the foot of the tree; and so, although he was unaware of it, by dropping the sacred bilva leaves, Suswara was making a sacred offering to the Shivalinga. That night happened to be Shivaratri. So the hunter had unknowingly kept a night-long vigil and worshipped Shiva.

According to the Shiva Purana, the Mahashivaratri worship should incorporate six items: offering bilva leaves to the deity after giving it a ceremonial bath, which represents purification of the soul; applying vermilion paste on the linga after bathing it, which represents virtue; offering food, which is conducive to longevity and the gratification of desires; lighting incense, which yields wealth; lighting an oil lamp, which signifies the attainment of knowledge; and offering betel leaves, which marks satisfaction with worldly pleasures. These six items form an indispensable part of the Mahashivaratri worship, be it a simple ceremony at home or grand temple worship.

The story above is an allegory. Just as the hunter sought to kill wild animals, the spiritual seeker tries to overcome lust, anger, greed, infatuation, jealousy and hatred. The jungle is the mind where all these negativities roam about. A spiritual aspirant must kill these "animals" to be free.

The name of the hunter was Suswara, which means "one of melodious voice." This indicates the purity of intent and speech, which, in turn, imply a level of mental purity.
The hunter was born in Varanasi. Vara refers to the forehead while nasi is the nose. The point where both meet is Varanasi, in other words, the point midway between the eyebrows. This point is also called the ajna chakra and is regarded as a nexus of the three nadis: ida, pingala and sushumna. A spiritual aspirant who concentrates his or her mind on this point gains concentration and gradual control over his senses. The killing of the animals thus indicates control over one's vasanas [latent tendencies].

The bilva tree corresponds to the spinal column. The tree's leaves are special: each stalk has three leaflets. The three leaflets represent the three nadis mentioned above. The climbing of the tree represents the ascent of the kundalini shakti from the muladhara to the ajna chakra.

Keeping awake is symbolic of the kind of awareness and oneness of purpose that a spiritual aspirant needs to reach the goal. He cannot afford to be slack even for a moment. 

Shiva is the Supreme Consciousness that illuminates the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. Offering the threefold bilva leaves to the Shivalinga heralds the return to a level of consciousness beyond the three states, which is the fourth state, turiya. The dawning of that state is consonant with the awakening of the individual.

~*~ 

Everyone eats and has Chai

Everyone chants

Children run about freely

It's instant community

~*~

Text  http://archives.amritapuri.org/bharat/festival/sivaratri.php

PASTICHE

Life's a pastiche, a patchwork of events, places, people, ideas, feelings,
doings, undoings and not doings.

Cloth piece in process Sunday

~*~

A man at the corner of my block
Monday afternoon.

At my writing group in the evening, a prompt from Dickens:
"A man may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well dressed.  There ain't much credit in that"

Oh, she loved him she said, and anyone could see it was so.  "What kind o' love is that her mother had said...Jesus will ya jus' look at 'im!", and that was the extent of her commentary before the door slammed.  

But Susie was lost in that bleached blond hair, the leather and silver chains, and the way that guy swaggered when he walked, like a rock star from a movie she couldn't quite remember.  He had a smile so something it felt like sunbathing in hell.  There was no hope for it.  She was a goner.  He took her to rock concerts, bars, and then to someone named Slash's place way up in the Bronx where her lungs nearly exploded from the smell of weed before they even got out of the elevator.  When she passed out an hour later, he deposited her on the bed there and hung a 'do not disturb' sign.  

At noon when she woke, the place was silent as a cemetery in the countryside.  The apartment was empty!  There was no food in the fridge, and the stink of the place was like old socks and smoke.  She stumbled out to the bright light of a Saturday afternoon, found a pay phone and called her brother to come and get her, then waited in a coffee shop across the street.  She never saw the guy again, but thought about him once in awhile--usually when she was feeling low.
*

My old and new neighborhood:
One squats the other looms.

~*~

Broome Street temple on Tuesday

Monthly Hanuman chanting

 Sanskrit

With the dust of the Guru's lotus feet I clean the mirror of my heart and mind.  Knowing myself to be ignorant I urge you, O Hanuman, son of the wind, bestow on me strength, wisdom and knowledge, remove my suffering.

A tiny snippet of the forty verse Chalisa

~*~

"Archeology Addicts"
Wednesday

At the National Arts Club

Professor Salima Ikram from the American University of Cairo, author of 'Death and Burial in Ancient Egypt', and 'Divine Creatures'

A well documented, and extremely entertaining slide/lecture detailing the history of embalming corpses from its inception in Egypt through it's most recent incarnations, detailing evolving techniques of mummification with emphasis placed upon methods of wrapping as well as jewellery, amulets and other artifacts included within the linen. Dr. Ikram summarized the manner in which archaeologists analyze funerary finds to elucidate ancient history, economy, culture, and religion.

~*~

American history Thursday evening 

http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/films/the-roosevelts

LINK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_family

Looking Back
Library of Congress historian Michelle Krowl talks to noted author Doris Kearns Goodwin about her book, "The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the
Golden Age of Journalism." 

*
Return to Ken Burns

Roosevelt

An Intimate Portrait

Eleanor and Franklin

Eleanor

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

TGIF

THIS WEEK SO FAR

Monday
6-8PM

Spent two hours with my regular writing group.  The first 'prompt', apropos of the weather, from Shel Silverstein

 We wrote for twenty minutes.  I set myself the task of turning the prompt into a transition to what I really wanted to write about.  The second 'prompt' was a Faulkner quote "Perhaps they were right, putting love into books.  Perhaps it could never live anywhere else."  I wrote a biting end-of-relationship scene for that one.  I won't be showing them here because they're both too raw.  We read aloud to each other, but I need to take them further than that rough start before sharing them in print.  The point of the work using the Amherst Method is to keep ideas flowing.

Tuesday
7-9:30 PM

Chanted the Hanuman Chalisa with Shyama Chapin, Joelle (pictured) and others at Broome Street Temple

A forty verse prayer written by Shree Goswami Tulsidas in the sixteenth century to honor Hanuman for his total devotion to Lord Rama. Animated, taken from the book 'The Hanuman Chalisa' by B. G. Sharma (an amazing and gifted illustrator). Music graciously provided by Krishna Das. Video by anjani lynn white.

Transition 
Late night is early morning in France  This beautiful song is the tag line to one of my favorite blogs
Bob and Sophie's French Adventure

Wednesday
6-7:30 PM

Zazen
New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care
http://zencare.org/

http://zecare.org/archives/zentalks/heart-sutra-new

Sunset

Night Falls

One  of those toss and and turn, flipping flopping nights

Thursday 

5PM

Sleep deprived, or not, the day was lovely

To the National Arts for a my friend Lorelies Art reception, only to be informed that the club is closed for the rest of the Summer !  Hmmmmmmm.... ?

Sweet scented blooms on my way home..

 ..took the sting out of disappointment

It turned out that somewhere between her very clear email  announcement, and my writing it down on my calendar, my brain reverted to the last show at the Arts club...the reception was at

National Association of Women Artists, Inc.

(N.A.W.A.)
80 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1405, New York, NY 10011

(((sigh)))

 The show is up through this month so I can visit another time

~*~
It is not profitable to spend time on such questions as whether there was ever a beginning to the succession of universes that have been arising and reaching their end for innumerable aeons, or why sentient beings must revolve endlessly from life to life in this sad realm of samsara. What is needed is to direct one’s attention to the present, thinking: “This is how things are; what is to be done about them?”
—Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin by John Blofeld http://www.shambhala.com/bodhisattva-of-compassion-2.html

Here comes Friday

CHANTING CHANGES EVERYTHING...

...EXCEPT THE FACTS.

The practice of chanting can lift and clarify, increase light and lighten matter, illuminate and vibrate.

At some point during the hour long repetitions of a forty verse Sanskrit hymn of praise, a memory popped into my head--and immediately became visceral--a whole body memory of being at Ananda ashram on a Spring morning over a decade ago.
(Ma Bhaskarananda waving from the cabin I was given one summer)

I had been occupying the little one-room cabin on a slope of green, and tumbled out of bed one day to wander into the woody places where I came upon a vision--so many, many clumps of yellow in between the green like streams of sunlight running through the ground--it was a materialization of  the well known "host of golden daffodils."  Someone, sometime had planted naturalizing bulbs, which did what all naturalizing bulbs do given optimal conditions--they spread!  It was glorious then and glorious again last night.
(Where we chanted)

I got a ride all the way home.
~v~
Quite enough for Tuesday

~*~

Here it is Wednesday evening

~!~

"Look and you will find it--what is unsought will go undetected."
-Sophocles-