Maha Shivratri

Maha Shivratri offers an opportunity to consider and comprehend what Lord Shiva stands for. In the trinity of Gods, Shiva supposedly controls the aspect of destruction. Destruction is a precondition for creation. As the sum total of all energy is constant, only the forms it takes transform, any new creation shall necessarily involve demise of something that exists. The decision what to destroy and how to destroy requires great judiciousness, even more than what is required in creation. Destruction, therefore, is paramount, pervasive and pertinent.
Destruction also becomes necessary because either too much has been created; or due to the cessation of the utility of such creation. While nature has its own mechanism of self- correction and auto feedback on all such phenomena, human beings need to devise such mechanisms as they create. Unfortunately, the end plan for most human creations is never conceived.
The result is problem of plenty, whether of material or of choice. In these times of unfettered consumerism, more is always good, less is retrograde and anti-development. That growth can still happen by reducing one’s wants is a thought assiduously and forcefully banished. Whether this spiraling demand cycle indeed helps and if yes, who? is a question that begs addressing. That the minority rules the majority whether in realm of politics or thought, is a conclusion few can contest. So, if a handful of influential actors cast the destiny of our future because it serves their immediate interest, it calls for serious retrospection and introspection.
Shivratri, that is commemoration of Shiva, the God of destruction, actually points to the dangers and evils of never ending needs and demands, greed in fact, contrived and continued and propagated by only some of us; and the immediacy it deserves in truly understanding the growth paradigm of our choosing.
Lord Shiva will be pleased if we can realize the true nature of our wants and to consider that more may not necessarily be better and less not always symptomatic of unhappiness. That limiting one’s wants is still growth. Eventually, this may as well be the only way to avoid destruction and devastation too often.