A day of deep spiritual significance

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This article was published 08/03/2025 (239 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Religious celebrations have been in full swing at the Hindu Temple and Cultural Centre since reopening six months ago.

The Hindu Society of Manitoba celebrated Maha Shivratri on Feb. 26 at the newly renovated temple on Ellice Avenue and the Hindu Temple and Dr. Raj Pandey Hindu Centre on St. Anne’s Road. More than 1,000 people took in the celebrations at both locations.

Celebrated by Hindus around the world, Maha Shivratri falls during the month of Phalgun (February-March) in the Hindu calendar.

Maha Shivratri, “the great night of Lord Shiva”, is dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva with a focus for devotees to strive towards purifying and disciplining their minds. It is a day of deep spiritual significance.

Lord Shiva, revered as the Supreme Lord who is the soul of the universe, is responsible for the dissolution and regeneration of all beings. The deity is the third entity of the Hindu Trinity, which encompasses the continuous life cycle of creation, preservation, destruction and re-creation.

Community members passed through the Ellice Avenue prayer hall to make holy offerings to the Shiva Lingam, which means a mark or emblem. This stone emblem, also called a rounded pillar, has a vertical top, elliptical in shape. Shiva Lingams are typically made of quartz or granite. They can also be made from clay, precious stones and various metals. Across India, natural Lingams have been found, emerging from the earth.

Symbolizing Lord Shiva, the Lingam is worshipped as the formlessness and infinite nature of God who is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.

“The Lingam represents both the origin of creations and the dissolution of creations … as a new creation emerges, the old one ends or dissolves,” said Pandit Venkat Machiraju, one of the HSM’s priests.

At different intervals throughout the day, community members had the opportunity to partake in the scared ritual of Abhishek, a Sanskrit word, referring to an auspicious bath for a deity. Holy offerings of water, milk, honey, among others, were poured over the Lingam as devotees made their wishes and sought blessings. Making offerings to the Lingam at the Ellice Avenue temple holds precious meaning for community members since the emblem’s installation in 1996.

Community members waited in line to spend only a few minutes at the Lingam. At various times, the lineup snaked throughout the prayer hall and reached the temple foyer. While community members were making their offerings, Pandit Shrikant Sharma, the officiating HSM priest for the celebration, was reciting prayers and doing pujas, or religious ceremonies.

Lord Shiva is equated with perfect control over the mind. When devotees make offerings to the Lingam, it is about tempering dark thoughts and excessive desires, said Pandit Machiraju.

“The mind is some days positive, some days negative. Overall, the mind can be a huge problem for humans. By reducing having too many thoughts, you can control the mind and quiet the mind,” he said. “On Maha Shivratri, if we give a little more push to control our thoughts, we can be more focused spiritually.”

Since the essence of Maha Shivratri is to calm thoughts, many community members engage in fasting throughout the day.

“We are in the slumber of the worldliness around us. We are stuck with the materialistic nature of the body. We don’t realize that there is a divine being inside us. The divine being is beyond the physical body. But we are focused on feeding the body and sustaining the body. On Maha Shivratri, we try to overcome the physical body by not eating and by not sleeping to realize our spiritual significance,” Pandit Machiraju explained.

This year’s Maha Shivratri comes at a pivotal moment in history. People are experiencing feelings of anger, anxiety, fear, doubt and hatred amid the turbulent times unfolding with the U.S. and globally.

In the midst of uncertainty, this celebration of the regeneration of life offers a reminder to refresh and be the master of our own minds, which can help us physically, emotionally and spiritually. It is a call to not give in to chaos and confusion. It is a call to not give up hope and to not give up on humanity for our individual and collective paths forward.

“The mind is a great thing. But often, our minds control us, instead of us controlling our minds,” Pandit Machiraju said.

Romona Goomansingh, PhD is an educator, freelance writer and author in Winnipeg.

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