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.
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.
I’m excited to share more with you about Amrita Gita, one of Amrita Virtual Academy’s most recent and valuable gemstones, amongst its online courses. This spiritual course dives deeply into Amma’s teachings, which are shared and made available through the poetic compilations of Swami Turiyamritananda Puri.
Since Swami Turiyamritananda Puri had been the first disciple to be with Amma, and was with her since his teens, he heard many early conversations between Amma and her devotees. He realized the precious pearls of wisdom that emerged should be preserved and shared with the world. The result became a collection of poetic verses named, Amrita Dhara.
Soon after, Swami Amritaswarupananda Puri, Amma’s most senior disciple, tuned the verses into a wondrous bhajan for Amma’s 32nd birthday. The bhajan was named Omkara Divya Porule and contains 32 verses. Since then, Swami Turiyamritananda Puri has offered a new collection of “Amrita Dhara” verses each year for Amma’s birthday, containing the same number of verses as Amma’s years on the planet, in her current form
The verses from the first Omkara Divya Porule are currently being reflected on by the Ashram residents and visitors through the “Amrita Dhara Yajna” satsangs (spiritual talks), currently occurring daily, during Amma’s evening programs in Amritapuri, India, which are also streamed online with an on-demand replay available soon after.
In Amrita Virtual Academy’s course, Amrita Gita, a number of Amma’s swamis share their thoughts on the different verses of Amrita Dhara / Omkara Divya Porule through offering satsangs and Q&A sessions. They also share wondrous stories from the early days with Amma. The course also provides the opportunity to view some vintage video footage, satsangs, and stories from the Amritapuri archives, so you, too, can indulge in feeling what it was like to be with Amma in the early days.
That was what captured me, as I listened to the first satsang in the course by Swami Turiyamritananda Puri; I loved how he speaks of stories from the past, and how Amma talked in parables. I also appreciated how Swamiji felt the need and call to preserve Amma’s wisdom, and turn her words into poems, so that people could more easily digest the essence of her teachings.
I felt awe for the wisdom he has, to be able to transform those words from Amma into a more easy-to-understand, yet elegant language. I also thought about what a great heart he must possess to feel the need to serve the world in this way. It made me feel grateful and in awe, wishing no one to miss out on this rare and precious, online spiritual course!
Several of the students in the course have also expressed what the online classes have meant to them so far, and how the course has inspired, transformed and uplifted them in their spiritual practices, as well as their daily life. Here are are some sharings from a couple of those voices:
Karen LaVigne (USA) shares:
The Swamis’ explanations and insights are so beautiful that I’m often brought to tears. The one inspiration that stays with me always is to keep Amma’s image in my mind, so she becomes my eyes/vision, ears, speech, smell, taste and touch… all my senses. I wish I had the words to express my gratitude for this practice.
Thank you to Karen for sharing her beautiful experience. What an inspiration for all of us, to keep Amma in our minds, close to our heart at all times… and to finally reach that point where we are established in that final experience that Amma is—indeed the consciousness behind our senses and mind.
Our next student, Madhurima, also feels the power of this online spiritual course, and explains how the teachings help her to slowly transform her thoughts…
Madhurima (Canada) shares:
“This ‘course’ has been such a lovely addition to my daily sadhana. And, I’ve followed the recommendation that the verses be sung at the end of arcana each morning… And, I know Verse 1 by heart now… Thank you. It is all so good… and I know I am imbibing the ‘wisdom’, as well… little by little in my daily life I find myself ‘correcting a thought’ with something that I have learned from the verses or the satsangs…”
Each month, one Swami provides three 20-minute commentaries on the verses in addition to a one-hour live Q&A. The final live session of the Amrita Gita online course is currently scheduled to be a closing ceremony in October (see schedule); but, you can still join anytime, and participate at your own pace. The replay videos are normally uploaded within a week of the live classes to the Amrita Virtual Academy website and all of the satsang commentaries are on-demand.
Don’t miss out on this precious opportunity to dive more deeply into Amma’s teachings. Amrita Gita is part of the AVA Membership. Become a member, and join Amrita Gita now! As a member, you get full access to 60+ online courses and retreats.
A few years ago, Amma was talking about gratitude as a state of mind. She said that it is the ability to remember all the support we have received, with full humility. Then we will realize that we owe so much to thousands of people, animals, natural forces, worms and even invisible microbes! It would take lifetimes to pay back these debts, especially towards nature and above all, to God. So, we should try to maintain an attitude of thankfulness always.
But don’t think that it is for the benefit of others! Gratitude benefits us more than anyone else. Amma says, “The positivity and goodness that awakens within as a result of being grateful, in turn benefits society and the entire world.”
While we might find it challenging to be grateful to everything, always, at least we can try.
For example, if you pick up a book, try to remember how you got that book. Did someone give it to you? Did a person help you find the book in a store? Who wrote it, and who edited it? Who taught the person who wrote it? Who printed and bound the book? Who produced the ink needed and who invented the machine that printed the letters? Where did the paper come from and who turned the wood into pulp, then finally paper? How many years did it take the tree to mature?
“Gratitude benefits us more than anyone else.”
When we think about it, for us to just read a book for a few minutes requires the blessings of so many people and factors that are totally out of our control. Shouldn’t we feel grateful to all those people, and to Mother Nature for enabling all of those steps to happen? Above all else, Mother Nature’s blessings determine the success of everything, as we are witnessing now. We can even bow down to a book before we read it.
The food we eat is another fantastic proof of our dependence on so many people and factors. Even if we cook our own meal, where did the ingredients come from? How were they prepared and who did all the work to make sure it reached our dinner table? Even if we grow our own vegetables, where did the seeds come from, and how did the soil become fertile? Even if we save seeds from our own garden and enrich our own soil, we ourselves cannot create a seed, nor can we orchestrate that actual process of soil enrichment.
All this shows the limits of our power and control. No matter how much effort we make, each step of the way the outcome is not guaranteed. Shouldn’t we feel gratitude when the desired outcome is achieved? Even more so, shouldn’t we be grateful to the mysterious power that converts the raw minerals in the ground into the finished product of a vegetable that we can eat?
Of course, the mycorrhizae and the worms improve the soil, and the bees take care of the pollination, but what power prompts them all to do so? It is you or me? What if they all went on strike one day and there were no more vegetables to eat? All life on Earth would cease to exist. Again, plenty of reasons to bow down to our food and give thanks.
When we reflect in this way, Amma says there is nothing for which we should not feel grateful. Even when we go to bed, we need a space to put our head down, a space for our body—not on a bed of nails but something soft—we need a degree of calm and quiet, and ultimately the blessings of sleep, itself. When 60 million people in the USA suffer from insomnia, can’t we just be thankful for a good night’s sleep? Before getting into bed, why not bow down to the bed, itself?
Let us try to remember all the things we can be grateful for during our daily life. However simple something may seem, let us not take it for granted. We can at least mentally bow down to each and everything we use and depend on. This practice will certainly help us experience the truth of Amma’s words—gratitude is a state of mind.
Swami Shantamritananda Puri and other disciples lead an online “Gratitude Retreat” for Amrita Virtual Academy: Click here to sign up: https://bit.ly/3f32Gtt
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.
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:
Inspired by my initial course exploration, and by Amma’s quote, I decided to listen to Swami
