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Thursday, May 1, 2025

300 temples to observe Shiva Raatri

by

20130308

In the midst of the Chris­t­ian Lenten ob­ser­vance, Hin­dus in Trinidad and To­ba­go will cel­e­brate Ma­ha Shi­va Raa­tri tonight.It is the night of the great awak­en­ing of Lord Shi­va ac­cord­ing to the Hin­du holy books. He is al­so the Ab­sorber of the Uni­verse, and the third force in the Hin­du pan­theon of the God­head. Hin­dus are ex­pect­ed to keep an all night vig­il.

Lord Shi­va is the re­deemer as well as the de­struc­tive Force which is man­i­fest­ed in all as­pects of cre­ation. He em­bod­ies the pos­i­tive ideals of re­nun­ci­a­tion, as­ceti­cism, seren­i­ty and all neg­a­tive hu­man val­ues as un­truth­ful­ness, van­i­ty, ig­no­rance, im­pu­ri­ty, de­ceit and de­cep­tion. Hin­dus con­sid­er Shi­va Raa­tri as one of its most no­ble and mon­u­men­tal ob­ser­vances.

The 300-odd tem­ples across the coun­try would be hold­ing vig­il, in­clud­ing Ed­in­burgh Hin­du Tem­ple, Ch­agua­nas Mandir, Long­denville Tem­ple, Ca­paro Shi­va Mandir, the Se­va Sangh of Ca­paro, Fe­lic­i­ty Hin­du Mandir, Gas­par­il­lo Hin­du Mandir, Blue Star of Ban­doo Trace, Clax­ton Bay.

For some, Shi­va Raa­tri cel­e­brates the night when Lord Shi­va is said to have per­formed the tan­da­va or cos­mic dance of pri­mor­dial cre­ation, preser­va­tion and de­struc­tion. The dance it­self and the en­cir­cling of fire sym­bol­ise a recog­ni­tion that, with­in the cy­cle of de­struc­tion, ex­ists the seeds of re­gen­er­a­tion and re­birth.Ma­ha Shi­va Raa­tri is the most aus­pi­cious night ded­i­cat­ed to Lord Shi­va who is the third mem­ber of the Hin­du trin­i­ty of Lord Brah­ma, Lord Vish­nu and Lord Shi­va.

Ob­ser­vances would be held in all tem­ples not on­ly on the night of Shi­va Raa­tri, but al­so on the days lead­ing to the cel­e­bra­tion it­self where Lord Shi­va yag­nas would be or­gan­ised, re­quir­ing devo­tees and fol­low­ers to ab­stain, fast and ob­serve strict spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­plines.The devo­tee is thus en­grossed in pu­ri­fied thoughts and ac­tions that should keep him or her from un­wel­come dis­trac­tion.


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