The Shivaratri is the most important religious event in Nepal. It takes place in the moonless night of lunar calendar month of Phalgun, in February or March according to western calendar. The Pashupathinath Hindu main temple in Kathmandu is the venue for a mela – religious festival – that draw thousands of worshippers not only from Nepal, but from India and Bangladesh as well. It is a celebration of Lord Shiva, and the legend says that on this night, Lord Shiva performed the cosmic dance of creation and destruction.
The Pashupatinath main temple is our local temple, and I often go for a morning walk through the temple ground and up to the old forest, where buildings and ruins of old sanctuaries are spread under the shades of huge, old trees, bearing witness of more than a thousand years of the Hindu culture of Nepal. Walking along the holy Bagmati River, I pass the ghats with the many cremation platforms. Here, funeral pyres burn all day, to cremate the dead bodies of worshippers from all over the country. Further up the river, I come to a gorge, where several caves for hermits are dug out in the steep cliffs. Sometimes I pay a visit to a friend who teaches meditation in one of the hermitages. He often serves me milk tea with fresh milk from the cows that grass on the nearby field. I am also invited to join a fire ceremony in Suriya Ghat, a small temple on the top of one of the cliffs. Here, at a distance from the crowdy temple area, the peace of the forest reigns. Only the sound of the rushing water is heard, mixed with the birds’ song and the chatting of the monkeys up in the trees.
During the Shivaratri, however, sounds and songs of the festival fill the air, as the many sadhus and other worshippers dance and sing through the whole night. At dusk, the Arati fire and lights dance starts, and the garland decorated pavilions resound with the bhajans or religious songs intoned by my friends and colleges at the school: Tablas and flutes, led by a famous singer and his harmonium. The Arati is a beautiful ritual dance. Priests in theirs colorful robes perform the dance with cobra-shaped lanterns and blow theirs conch shells to invoke the presence of Jaghanmata - Divine Mother- and Lord Krishna. The attached video clip gives just a small glimpse of the scene, when hundreds of worshippers join in the praising of God: Jai Mahadeva!
The Pashupatinath main temple is our local temple, and I often go for a morning walk through the temple ground and up to the old forest, where buildings and ruins of old sanctuaries are spread under the shades of huge, old trees, bearing witness of more than a thousand years of the Hindu culture of Nepal. Walking along the holy Bagmati River, I pass the ghats with the many cremation platforms. Here, funeral pyres burn all day, to cremate the dead bodies of worshippers from all over the country. Further up the river, I come to a gorge, where several caves for hermits are dug out in the steep cliffs. Sometimes I pay a visit to a friend who teaches meditation in one of the hermitages. He often serves me milk tea with fresh milk from the cows that grass on the nearby field. I am also invited to join a fire ceremony in Suriya Ghat, a small temple on the top of one of the cliffs. Here, at a distance from the crowdy temple area, the peace of the forest reigns. Only the sound of the rushing water is heard, mixed with the birds’ song and the chatting of the monkeys up in the trees.
During the Shivaratri, however, sounds and songs of the festival fill the air, as the many sadhus and other worshippers dance and sing through the whole night. At dusk, the Arati fire and lights dance starts, and the garland decorated pavilions resound with the bhajans or religious songs intoned by my friends and colleges at the school: Tablas and flutes, led by a famous singer and his harmonium. The Arati is a beautiful ritual dance. Priests in theirs colorful robes perform the dance with cobra-shaped lanterns and blow theirs conch shells to invoke the presence of Jaghanmata - Divine Mother- and Lord Krishna. The attached video clip gives just a small glimpse of the scene, when hundreds of worshippers join in the praising of God: Jai Mahadeva!
