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Articles: Festivals | Maha Sivaratri
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While meditation is the collective force of the mind concentrating itself on God-consciousness, the senses, when they are active, do the opposite of meditation and you become a tremendous extrovert. You are connected to the objects of sense, rather than the universal concept which is God. God is unity, whereas sense objects are multiplicity. They are the opposite of what you are aiming at in your spiritual life. With moderate behaviour in every manner in your spiritual life, you will attain to success. As the Bhagavad Gita beautifully puts it, 'moderate in your eating, moderate in your activity, moderate in your speech, moderate in your sleep'-form the golden mean, the via-media, the golden path.
God is the harmony of all powers in the universe. Harmony means the middle course, neither this extreme nor that extreme. You cannot say whether it is or it is not. We don't know what it is. As Buddha said: 'Nothing is', is one extreme; 'everything is', is another extreme. God is in the middle. Truth is in the middle.' So, the middle path is the best path, which is the path of austerity with understanding. This is the characteristic of the middle path. When there is understanding without austerity, it is useless. When there is austerity without understanding, that is also useless. There must be austerity with understanding and understanding with austerity, knowledge with self-control and self-control with knowledge, that is wisdom. Knowledge with self-control is called wisdom, whereas knowledge without self-control is mere dry intellectuality. That is of no use. And austerity without understanding is a kind of foolishness. It will have no proper result. So, Lord Siva is not merely an austere Being but also a repository of Knowledge.
All worshippers of knowledge also worship Lord Siva, as He is the God of all students, scholars and seekers of wisdom and knowledge. Thus, Maha-Sivaratri is a very blessed God-sent opportunity for us. So on this day, pray to Lord Siva with all your heart, with all your soul, fully trusting on the might of God, wanting nothing from the objects of sense and delighted within that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. God is bound to come.
The powers of the cosmos are everywhere and they can be invoked at any time by us, provided we are strong enough in our will and in the method of invocation. We are blessed because we live in the Kingdom of God. We are blessed because we are seekers of Truth. We are blessed because we are disciples of a great Master. We are blessed, thrice blessed, four-times, five-times blessed because we are seeking God who also seeks everything in this creation. God seeks the world and the world seeks God. This is the mystery of creation, the subtlety of the spiritual path and the glory of the meditative life. Jnana and Vairagya combined is Lord Siva who is worshipped on Mahasivaratri day.
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