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Dear friends
That is the end of the great night of Shiva, or Mahasivaratri. Yesterday was an ordinary day, which in the evening went to the celebration of the wedding of the God of the Gods Lord Shiva with the beautiful daughter of Mountains the Parvati. This night, Shiva, a great intoxicant soma drinker, gets drunk and goes to sleep. It is the only night of the year that the Great God sleeps, otherwise he is awaken or dwells in meditation.
In the south of India, Shiva is at the forefront. And especially here in Tiruvannamalai below Mount Arunachala, which is one of the forms of Shiva himself. All the temples associated with the Shiva cult are open all night, people sometimes stay in their temples, others walk around the Mountain and visit hundreds of places reminiscent of the eternal God.
In the photos we start in the evening in Sri Ramana Ashram full of pilgrims, where just one of many planned ceremonies ends. We see beautifully decorated Samadhi Sri Ramana Maharshi in the red color flowers.
On the road we see pictures Gods of Great God, and some stalls, which are here about the full moon, usually came. It's not a full crowd, but tens of thousands of people will go through the night. So you can get a tattoo, give ascetics some money, light the fires at the temples of your favorite gods, watch various ceremonies to honor the God of gods.
I enjoyed this night very much. Although from Tuesday I was a little suffered from cold, which I decided to deal on Thursday and visited the doctor, who gave me his natural medicine, what it can solve in a day or two. So I was nice and relaxed on Thursday and Friday evening. Then I had to go, so I was equipped with medicine, a light sweater and barefoot started for a pilgrimage. Along the way, I bought a conch shell, which was a good thing to forget about the fears of illness, and to enjoy the night. Shiva and trumpet conch come together. They wanted 700 Rupees at the first booth, but somehow it didn't suit me. Then I felt a pity and when I saw another booth, I took for the first conch shell, which sounded great as if waiting for me there. Price 500 Rupees. From Nirudhi Lingam, I trumpeted in every temple I met. After a few hours, I didn't really sound anymore, it was quite difficult. The locals cheered me, so I blew what it was possible.
The next picture shows another shells stand. After him you see the bath of bull Nandin, who inherently belongs to Shiva. You've seen baths of lingam, Nandin, Ganesha everywhere, no night will be left without proper care.
A little further was a dance performance and the next photo shows that the night belongs to the smallest. Another photo from the Sai Baby Temple shows that everyone could try to bathe the statue of Shiva and next is a little singer of a favorite mantra sings little further.
As always, there is a rush at Lingam, where Shiva was worshiped by the master of wealth, Kubera. I threw a 5-rupee coin into the building to keep the favor of Lord Wealth and take a beautiful mandala of flowers and butter lamps.
The next photo shows that even the crawling temple was busy with crawling devotees. There was a particularly long line to the big temple this year, so this year I didn't get there because I didn't want to risk more than necessary. So I blew Arunachaleswar from the east and the south and went on. The last lingam before Sri Ramana Ashram is Agni Lingam, where the Lord of the Fire of Great Shiva worshiped. I had no idea he was so popular and he stood in line for about half an hour. However, I did not regret, the classical Indian crush of devotee singing Om Namah Shivaya, Om Agni Lingaya replaced everything. People meet here, stand together in a crowd, sing and then never see each other again. But it doesn't matter, they all love the same God. Very nice experience, here I always wanted me to blow, but it could not be much.
I finished the pilgrimage at the beginning, in Sri Ramana Ashram just before midnight, the hour of calm was slowly ending and the midnight series of ceremonies and Vedic chants approached to honor Shiva in the form of Lingam - Lingobhava Puja. Samadhi is decorated mostly with pure white flowers. I sat for a while, but then I thought it was time to go to bed. Along the way I stopped at nearby Jogi Ram Surat Kumar ashram, which is far from the road, huge and so much more peaceful. There, of course, there was a ceremony with Vedic chants. I sat for a while, then last sounded and went to bed.
Have a nice time !!!
Josef Fric
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