Maha Shivaratri in Mithila

Consequently he blessed the hungry hunter. It is believed that he was born in a royal family in the next birth. So, Mahashivaratri is considered the festival of rags to riches in true sense of the term because Lord Shiva is the all-seeing guardian-deity of Hindus. He does not distinguish between pauper and prince devotees.

By RD Rakesh

Mithila is a mystical and mythological land. It has been a legendary and sacred pilgrimage place from time immemorial. It is a religious and pious place, renowned in the field of philosophy. Yajnavalkya, the great sage, Maitrei and Gargi famous philosophers were born in Mithila. Shavism and Vaishamavism are two prominent religious of this mysterious land. Though Lord Buddha ‘the light of Asia’ was born in Lumbini, Buddhism is not prevalent in Mithila. It is a matter of wonder and moreover a subject of research.

Shavism is the oldest religious cult prevalent in Mithila and it has a deep impact on the life and culture of the people of this land. Consequently there is a Shiva temple in each and every village of Mithila. It is believed that, if Shiva is invoked sincerely, then he is pleased immediately and fulfills the desires and aspirations of his devotees in no time. So Shavism is very popular and still predominant in Mithila.

Our country Nepal is known as a holy land of Shiva because of the world famous temple of Lord Pashupatinath from the Vedic period. This truth has also been proved that Shiva is a vedic God. He is also believed to be a God of creation, sustence, decadence and destruction. It is believed that there is a strong philosophical background of Shavism in Mithila from time immemorial.

Thus Shavism has distinct and deep influence on the daily life of the Hindu community in Mithila. The people of Mithila worship Lord Shiva Maheswor (the great Lord of all gods) on the auspicious occasion of Shivaratri which is thirteenth day of the dark fortnight of Phalguna (Feb-March).

Kalhan in his Rajatarangani states that on this auspicious occasion, the King also observed it with great respect and reverence.

The court artists performed several programmes of dancing and singing. Poetic gatherings were organised. The poets were praised and rewarded for the best works. Feasts were served to invite guests on this holy occasion.

Alberuni has stated that on the following night they worship Mahadev throughout, remain awake and do not lie down to sleep, and offer to him perfume and flowers. On Shivaratri, people of all classes go to nearby temples to worship the ‘linga’, the aniconic representation
of Shiva.

According to the ancient scriptures, Shiva manifests himself in the form of a huge flaming linga (Jyotirlinga) on the auspicious occasion of Shivaratri to bestow his gracious mercy on his devotees. They worship him and keep vigil whole night at least with one leaf of the Bilwa tree.

They also fast on the auspicious occasion of Shivaratri.

According to the Isana Samhita, Lord Shiva manifested himself in the form of a huge Jyotirlinga, to determine who is the greatest divinity among trinity (Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma).

To decide the quarrel and determine the divinity, the three gods agreed that he should be considered the greatest, which should first find out the end of the blazing column of fire, which was burning before them. According to this agreement, Vishnu undertook to reach the base and Brahma the top; but they never succeeded in this search in thousand years of time. They returned being disappointed and desperate. They confessed the superior supernatural power of Lord Shiva. This proves supremacy of Shiva over Vishnu and Brahma.

All people irrespective of caste and creed are permitted to worship Shiva on this holy occasion. The poor people are satisfied by pouring pure water with Bilwa trees leaves and fresh flowers. Rich people offer sweets and several kinds of gifts to Lord Shiva on this auspicious occasion. Lord Shiva especially prefers the offerings of Bilwa leaves (Bel or Bengal quince) Shriphal (meaning the fruit of plenty) Dhatura
(thorn apple), Akchhat (rice) and sandal paste.

Devotees of Shiva throng to the Shiva temples to offer prayers on this pious occasion. They sing devotional songs which are called Nachari.

They sing and dance on this delightful day because Lord Shiva also dances heavenly dance of creation, preservation and destruction.

Music itself has been originated from the damaru (a musical instrument) of Lord Shiva. So the devotees of Lord Shiva spend the whole night reading the Shiva Purana and chanting Shiva bhajans.

The Mahashivaratri festival is related to this folk story too. A hunter whose name was Suswar, was compelled to spend the night on the branches of Bilwa tree on the auspicious occasion of Mahashivaratri without food.

So he wept bitterly on that night. His tears rolled down with withered leaves of the bilwa tree (in the Hindu Mythology Shiva is described as intimately associated with this tree). The devotees of Shiva tie to their pig-tails (Shikha) the Bel leaves because they are considered sacred and pious and pleasing to their favourite Lord. If he is invoked with these offerings then, he is supposed to be pleased soon. He assumed that his true devotee was worshipping him sincerely. Consequently he blessed the hungry hunter.

It is believed that he was born in a royal family in the next birth.

So, Mahashivaratri is considered the festival of rags to riches in true sense of the term because Lord Shiva is the all-seeing guardian-deity of Hindus.

He does not distinguish between pauper and prince devotees. He is a truly liberal, generous and purely democratic God of this universe. So he is very popular in this atomic age too. He is also easily pleased and satisfied immediately. So his devotees worship him whole heartedly on this auspicious occasion.

According to Vijayavati’s inscription at Suryaghat, Abhilekha Sangraha, Part I, Page 23 "Salutation to thee O! Siva Maheshwor (the great Lord of all) whose will is the cause of all this world along with whole cosmic order, wherein all the acts of creation, sustenance, growth, decadence and destruction take shape and the universe is bound to appear and disappear for ever."

Our country is widely known as Pashupatik shetra (as the abode of Lord Shiva). The lines quoted above support this statement. Literally Pashu means the human being or individual soul (Jivatma) and Pati means Lord.

The Shiva philosophy has deep influence on the social system of the Hindu community in Nepal. He is the supreme God of all dances and dramas. Drum (Damaru) is considered as the instrument par excellence.

It has been originated from the first word om. His cosmic dance (tandav) has made him the Natraja( masters of all dances). Thus it is considered that the beginning of all arts and sciences is accredited to Shiva. Medical science also owes to him because Ayurveda is originally related to Parada (mercury) and Gandhaka (sulphur) to Shiva and Parvati.

Osho on Vipasanna

Man has chosen to breathe only up to the chest, so the chest becomes bigger and bigger and the belly shrinks down. That appears to him to be more athletic.

By Acharya Shree Dhruv

Vipasanna is a meditation that has made more people in the world enlightened than any other because it is quite essencential. All other meditations have the same essence, but in different forms. Vipasanna is pure essence. Vipasanna is such a simple thing that even a small child can do it. In fact, they can do it better. Vipasanna can be done in three ways- you can choose which one suits you
the best.

The first is awareness of your actions, your body, your mind, your heart. While walking, you should walk with awareness. Moving your hand, you should move with awareness, knowing perfectly that you are moving the hand. You can move it without any consciousness, like a mechanical thing, you are on a morning walk; you can go on walking without being aware of your feet.

Be alert of the movements of your body. While eating, be alert to the movements that are needed for eating. Taking a shower, be alert to the coolness that is coming to, the water falling on you and the tremendous joy of it- just be alert. It should not go on happening in an unconscious state.

And the same about your mind. Whatever thought passes on the screen of your mind, just be a watcher, whatever emotion passes on the screen of your heart, just remain a witness- don’t get involved, don’t get identified, don’t evaluate what is good, what is bad; that is not part of your meditation. The second form is breathing. As you breath in, your belly starts inflating and as the breath goes out, your belly starts settling down again. So the second method is to be aware of the belly: Just the very awareness of the belly rising and falling.....and the belly is very close to the life sources because the child is joined with the mother’s life through the navel. Behind the navel is his life’s source. So, when the belly rises up, it is really the life energy, the spring of life that is rising up and falling down with each breath. That too is not difficult, and perhaps may be even easier because it is a single technique. In the first, you have to be aware of the body, you have to be aware of the mind, and you have to be aware of your emotions, moods. So it has three steps. The second approach has a single step: just the belly, moving up and down and the results is the same. As you become more aware of the belly, the mind becomes silent the heart becomes silent, the moods disappear.

And the third is to be aware of the breath at the entrance, when the breath goes in through your nostrils. Feel it at that extreme-the other polarity from the belly- feel it from the nose. The breath going in gives certain coolness to your nostrils.

Man has chosen to breathe only up to the chest, so the chest becomes bigger and bigger and the belly shrinks down. That appears to him to be more athletic.

Around the world, except in Japan, all athletes and teachers of athletes emphasize to breathe by filling your lungs, expanding your chest, and pulling the belly in. The ideal is the lion whose chest is big and whose belly is very small.

Japan is the only exception where they don’t care about the chest being pulled in. It needs a certain discipline to pull the belly in; it is not natural. Japan has chosen the natural way; hence you will be surprised to see a Japanese statue of Buddha. That is the way you can immediately discriminate whether the statue is Indian or Japanese.

At nigh,t it happens when you sleep; you don’t breathe from your chest, you breathe from the belly. That is why our night is a relaxed night.

After your sleep, in the morning you feel so fresh, so young, because the whole night you were breathing naturally.

These are three forms. Any one can do it. And if you want to perform two forms together, the effort will become more intense. If you want to do all three forms together then the possibilities will be quicker. But it all depends on you, whichever feels easy.

Find a reasonably comfortable and alert position to sit for 40 to 60 minutes. Back and head should be straight, eyes closed and breathing normal. Stay as still as possible, only change position if it is really necessary.

While sitting, the primary objects inside you has to be observed by the rise and fall of the belly, slightly above the navel, caused by breathing in and out. It is not a concentration technique, so while watching the breath, many other things will take your attention away.

Nothing is a distraction in vipasanna, so when something else comes up, stop watching the breath, pay attention to whatever is happening until it’is’ possible to go back to your breath. This may include thoughts, feelings, judgements, body sensations, impression from the outside world, etc.

Heritage tour  
The ruins of Mangalsen palace

By Razen Manandhar

It is not only the Kathmandu Valley that lives on ancient civilisation and protects ancient art, culture and heritage in this country. Just like the valley, the far western hills were also rich in civilisation and had their own art, culture and rule of law. The 135 plus year old palace of Mangalsen in Achham district is one of them. It, however, became victim of the so called "People’s War" that has so far claimed over 2,000 lives. Only the ruins are there now, that tell you stories not only of the brave army but also of the historical palace that they could not save.

The royal palace was used as the Chief District Office of Achham. The people, the local authority and even the government bodies in the capital never realized the archaeological value of the three-storey building that looked quite simple in comparison to the lavish palaces of the Kathmandu valley.

The historians say that Mangalsen was a sort of autonomous region of the "empire" of Jumla in the fourteenth century. It had a long history of brave monarchs, where Devchandra ruled for over fifty generations. It became an independant state in the seventeenth century and a member of the United Twenty-Two States, (Baise Rajya) before the unification of Nepal. The territory of Mangalsen was so strong that King Prithvi Narayan also could not annex it to Nepal. This became a part of Nepal only in 1847 during the rule of Regent Bahadur Shah. And after 1961, it fully came under Nepal’s government when His Majesty’s Government "eradicated" all autonomous states and feudatories through a legal act. The government bought the palace at Rs 86,000 in 1971.

The present palace was built by King Bahadur Shah of Achham, over the ruins of the former one and added a tempel of Shodashi devi. It was made on 746 ropanis of land and the palace covers 4,200 square feet of land on the hill of 1426m. But the history can lead us thousands of years back, if we could excavate the exact ground on which the ruins of the palace stand today. It had a temple of Mangalseni Bhagwati inside the palace complex which was lost during the reconstruction process. The name of the area was derived form the same goddess Mangalseni.

The latest palace was made up of bricks, mud-mortar was used and the roof had fine quality tiles. The doors and windows have beautiful carvings and were highly influenced by the traditional architecture of the Kathmandu Valley. The ground floor has open gate structures like porches, and also has small and big windows. The second floor has quite big latticed windows. The third floor is excessively decorated with a long varandha around the palace (the front part varandha had fallen down before it was demolished).

Having such a palace in the capital could have been a normal scene but in the remote district which was not even linked with road transportation some years back is indeed awe-inspiring. The latest palace itself is evidence of the local civilisation. Despite the fact that a monarch’s prodigal palace cannot reflect the living standard of the common people, it can at least throw some light on the ground on which the art and culture flourished.

It is believed that the 135 year old monument is not only the thing we can be proud of in Mangalsen. Only archaeological excavations will pull up more things of archeological importance, that might be buried under the palace. The area around the Mangalsen Palace was a centre of civilization like the Kathmandu Valley. The only difference was that time disrupted the accession of the monarchs, and shattered the civilisation, architecture, religion and culture of the region.

Khalanga (Jajarkot), Balawang (Salyan), Dullu (Dailekh), Ajayameru (Dadeldhura), Hattisar (Bajhang) are some of the other palaces the region can boast. One can find the 1500-1600 year old ruins in Srikot, not far away from Mangalsen.

While the government has been only partially successful in conserving the monuments of the capital city, we should not expect even that much in remote hills of Achham. The local authorities did show interest in renovating the palace renovated earlier. The Achham CDO Mohan Singh Khatri, who also succumbed to death in the brutal incident, requested the Department of Archaeology to start renovation works some six months ago.

There are thousands of ancient monuments around the Himalayan Kingdom. We have a long history of barbaric attacks on humans as well as on heritage. But who was the winner?

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