This year, Shivaratri is February 26, 2025. As part of my seva with Amrita Virtual Academy, I was part of the team building the “Celebrating Shivaratri” collection, a series of practices and talks from the AVA Membership which help still the mind and connect students with Lord Shiva. While doing this, it struck me that I had some doubts about Shiva. Who is He? What sort of energy is experienced through Him? What qualities would I nurture if I was closer to Him?
I wasn’t brought up in the tradition of Sanatana Dharma, so I don’t have a natural understanding of these things. But, because Amma places importance on them, I want to understand them better. Since Shivaratri, the ancient nightlong celebration of Shiva, is coming soon, I decided to investigate.
Who is Shiva?
I started my investigation by enjoying the content collection we were selecting for February, and my mind and understanding began to expand. To be honest, I started with the “fun stuff”—the music, yoga, and Mindful Movement classes. Included in the music of the Shivaratri collection are: (1) a Shiva bhajan singalong (bhajans are spiritual/devotional songs usually sung in a call-and-response format), (2) a nostalgic movie of a newly-released, Amma-led bhajan set recorded during a U.S. tour, and (3) Br. Ramanandamrita Chaitanya’s moving session on bhajans as meditation.
Following the music, I enjoyed the priceless hatha yoga class based on the sun salutation, and the profound Mindful Movement class. Both the yoga and Mindful Movement teachers are phenomenal. I started to get an intuitive sense that Shiva is about how inner stillness, focus, and devotion connects us to something Absolute and beyond words.
Looking at the other treasures in the collection, I began to see more deeply and tangibly how a connection with Shiva would foster stillness, courage, and a relationship with the Absolute.
What Amma Says About Shiva
Amma has spoken extensively about Shiva, and it would be impossible to summarize much in this short blog, but I was reminded of her words on Shivaratri in 2020. Amma talked about life being like a river that we can only see part of. If we live on the banks of a river, we can only see whatever is in our visual field, and it is not correct to believe that we see the whole river—we cannot see its whole length, or source, or mouth. Amma said:
“Life is a beginning-less and endless river, constantly flowing and changing. The human mind and intellect cannot measure or know its depth or length. This mystery, itself, is Shiva. Our mind is finite and filled with fragmented thoughts and feelings. Shiva, or God, is one and infinite.” —Amma (Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi)
Drawing together the impressions I’d gathered already, and combining them with this incredible quote, I dove deeper. I thought, “What if I relax the idea that what I see/feel/hear is all there is? What if I relax beyond these senses and feelings into this mystery that Amma is talking about? What then? Will I touch the infinite mystery?”
Shiva and the Absolute
Inspired by my initial course exploration, and by Amma’s quote, I decided to listen to Swami
Paramatmananda Puri’s talk “Becoming the Absolute”. In this Satsang, Swamiji tells so many wonderful stories, but one that really stopped me was about a rich man. The rich man falls deeply in love with a spiritual teacher, a guru, feeling certain that if he dedicates himself fully, he will achieve knowledge of the Absolute.
This man has only ever been able to connect to the Absolute through a particular image of God. He had built an elaborate room in his home to house and focus on this image. The teacher tells him to disassemble it, and he obeys, even throwing away the bricks the room was built with. This kind of hard-to-understand request from a teacher is a theme that runs deeply through Western and Eastern mystic traditions.
After this, he loses all his riches, and ends up cutting and selling grass to support his family. Yet, he is still certain that if he obeys his guru, he will attain his goal. This paradoxical certainty is another common theme. Perhaps this kind of story is a way of showing the power of dedication to a mystery beyond logic.
After about 6 months, a messenger comes with a letter from his teacher, but the man must pay 20 rupees for the delivery (around 25 cents). The man has no such money, but his wife and daughter sell their remaining jewelry to raise the money, and the letter is finally given to him. The man is overcome with emotion that he has received a personal letter from his revered teacher. He holds the letter to his heart in such full reverence and concentration that immediately his mind stops and he is filled with awareness of the Absolute.
In the end, innocent faith and total surrender resulted in the grace of knowledge being given by the master.
The story made me feel the power of full devotion and trust. To use Amma’s analogy, what the man did, in my understanding, was to look beyond the river he could see, and fall into the mystery beyond, touching the Absolute. What led him there was love for, and full courage and trust in his teacher, made complete through grace.
Perhaps this mystery, and the willingness to let go of my logical mind is what I will aim for on Shivaratri night!
I want to end with a beautiful and somewhat startling example that illustrates how Shiva is not some distant, snake-wearing deity, but a presence that can be experienced even by animals.
Amma has such profound love for everything in creation. In her early days, during periods of intense spiritual practices, she would forget to eat or sleep, and animals and birds would bring her packets of food to eat. Amma’s deep love for all beings can be seen when she kisses tiny birds, feeds baby squirrels, cuddles her dog, or caresses plants.
While many of us have deep-seated fears of certain animals, Amma sees the oneness of all creation and only expresses love. Nature is attracted to this loving stillness and responds by reflecting it back, becoming docile and tame in Amma’s presence.
This love has been seen to extend even to snakes, who respond to it as innocently as a puppy or baby bird. For example, there have been times with Amma, when a snake has come close, crawled up her arm, and wound itself around the hair atop her head. The snake then perches there while Amma meditates, exactly like the depictions of Shiva in statues, where snakes ornament his neck and/or head. I saw a video of Amma with one of the snakes a couple of times. It’s quite remarkable.
Another Amma snake story I particularly like from Amma’s childhood is shared beautifully in Swamini Sanatanamrita Prana’s satsang from the AVA satsang collection. Check it out! It’s available to AVA members.
Conclusion
While I don’t yet feel like I’ve fully answered my own questions, the process of wondering has brought me to feel closer to both Shiva and Amma. Hopefully anyone reading this blog may also be inspired to explore, in their own personal way. I am absolutely certain that wondering and contemplating on Shiva, Amma, or any deity, brings a deeper relationship with them that is quite fruitful. I feel like I’ve imbibed much of the content in the February Shiva collection and have definitely made progress.