The sa­cred month of Shra­van be­gins on Ju­ly 30th and ends on Au­gust 28th, ded­i­cat­ed to Lord Shi­va, the holi­est pe­ri­od of the year for spir­i­tu­al pu­rifi­ca­tion. There are four Shra­van Som­var [Mon­days]. Al­though the pe­ri­od is pri­mar­i­ly ded­i­cat­ed to Lord Shi­va, the month is very aus­pi­cious for wor­ship­ping oth­er deities.

Dur­ing the month, chant­i­ng “Om Namah Shiv­aya” pu­ri­fies the soul, bring­ing peace and hap­pi­ness.

Shra­van is al­so ded­i­cat­ed to ho­n­our­ing the sac­ri­fice of Lord Shi­va for the act of swal­low­ing poi­son to save the uni­verse.

Lord Shi­va is fre­quent­ly re­ferred to in West­ern lit­er­a­ture as the God of De­struc­tion but Hin­dus more ac­cu­rate­ly de­scribe him as the God of re­ab­sorp­tion. We be­lieve that in time to come, he will re­ab­sorb all of cre­ation (Sam­Varan).

Hin­dus med­i­tate up­on him as that blue-throat­ed Lord, who wears his hair in mat­ted locks that are adorned with the cool cres­cent moon and forms the plat­form for the sa­cred riv­er Gan­ga. He wears ele­phant skin around his waist and ‘rudrak­sha’ (type of berry) beads around his neck. His de­meanour is calm and peace­ful and his coun­te­nance is serene, ra­di­at­ing the ma­jes­tic au­ra borne of pro­found med­i­ta­tions.

Lord Shi­va is pop­u­lar­ly de­pict­ed as sit­ting in a med­i­ta­tive state with eyes half-closed, and a third eye in the cen­tre of his fore­head rep­re­sent­ing the por­tal to a state of high­er spir­i­tu­al con­scious­ness.

He wields a tr­ishul or tri­dent in one hand and a damaru or small drum in the oth­er. His en­tire body is be­smeared with ash­es. His ve­hi­cle is a bull. All of these fea­tures hold spe­cial sig­nif­i­cance to Hin­dus.

Hin­du Scrip­tures make it clear that it is ex­treme­ly aus­pi­cious to wor­ship Lord Shi­va on all Mon­days dur­ing Shra­van. It is be­lieved the mer­its ob­tained by wor­ship­ping dur­ing Ma­ha Shiv Raa­tri can al­so be gained by wor­ship­ping Lord Shi­va on Mon­days in Shra­van. Hin­dus per­form pu­ja or cer­e­mo­ny where­by the ring­ing of bells, wav­ing of light, pre­sen­ta­tion of of­fer­ings and chant­i­ng of ap­pro­pri­ate scrip­tur­al vers­es or mantras oc­cur.

This is a sanc­ti­fied act of great­est im­por­tance to the Hin­du, as it ev­i­dences a very de­tailed ex­pres­sion of love, de­vo­tion and sur­ren­der for God. The pin­na­cle of wor­ship oc­curs when var­i­ous rec­om­mend­ed in­gre­di­ents (ab­hishe­ka) are poured on the Shi­va Lin­ga, or stone em­bod­i­ment.

The Lin­ga rep­re­sents the out­ward sym­bol of the form­less Supreme Lord Shi­va, who is in­di­vis­i­ble, all-per­vad­ing, eter­nal, aus­pi­cious, ever-pure, im­mor­tal essence of this en­tire cre­ation and your in­ner­most self. By wor­ship­ping the Lin­ga, Hin­dus are able to con­cen­trate up­on and com­mu­ni­cate di­rect­ly with Lord Shi­va.

Hin­dus must be wary of lit­er­a­ture which seeks to re­duce the Lin­ga to noth­ing more than a phal­lic sym­bol. This is ig­no­rance at its high­est.

One of the great­est scrip­tur­al com­po­si­tions, com­mon­ly re­ferred to as the “Rudri,” is found in the eter­nal Shuk­la Ya­jur Ve­da. This is a San­skrit com­po­si­tion ded­i­cat­ed to Lord Shi­va and is chant­ed in spe­cif­ic in­to­na­tions or me­tres. It rep­re­sents one of the high­est forms of wor­ship to Lord Shi­va, be­stow­ing any and all de­sires up­on those who un­der­take same.

It is al­so be­lieved that the Rudri is ca­pa­ble of erad­i­cat­ing the sins ac­quired by com­mit­ting even the most heinous acts. Whilst chant­i­ng these sa­cred vers­es, Hin­dus pour milk on the Lin­ga us­ing a ‘srin­gi’ or cone-shaped ves­sel with the base shaped like a bull’s head.

Apart from be­ing the Di­vine God­head, Lord Shi­va con­tin­ues to ap­peal to Hin­dus and non-Hin­dus alike in mod­ern so­ci­ety. He is, on the one hand, the per­son­i­fi­ca­tion of sim­plic­i­ty with ab­solute­ly no at­tach­ment to world­ly things, and on the oth­er hand, is ex­alt­ed as De­va De­va Ma­hade­va – the God of Gods, the Great­est God.

He is a de­vot­ed hus­band, be­ing mar­ried to De­vi Par­vati, and an af­fec­tion­ate fa­ther to his sons, Lord Ganesh and Lord Mu­rughan. He rep­re­sents ex­cel­lence in all his roles. When he dances, he is the ul­ti­mate dancer, Lord Natara­ja, who sets the pace and rhythm of the uni­ver­sal cy­cles.

He is the supreme yo­gi of­ten ab­sorbed in deep med­i­ta­tion. When he en­gages in the sport of hunt­ing, he is seen as the best archer. Amidst all of his ‘lilas’ or sportive plays, he is renowned for be­com­ing eas­i­ly pleased with those who wor­ship him, es­pe­cial­ly with ab­hishek or the chant­i­ng of the Rudri.

In this holy month of Shra­van, let us be re­mind­ed of the mag­nif­i­cence of that great Be­ing known as Aja, the Un­born, Satchi­danand. He who is Truth, Bliss and Con­scious­ness, Pashu­pati, Lord of all liv­ing be­ings. May the bless­ings of Lord Shi­va al­ways be up­on us.

Om Namah Shiv­ayah!