The Festival of Shiv 2011: Somvaar-The Monday Fast with Shiv as Matchmaker on Valentine's Day!

Cartoon as shown on our Festival of Shiv in 2010

Today is Valentine's day and it falls on the Somvaar or the Monday which many in Shiv worshipping land regard as an auspicious day of fasting to Shiv...you will recall earlier on the festival of Shiv i.e. last Monday from the Grand Opening blog that Shiv is also known as Som Nath based on his forgiveness and compassion towards the moon...shama karo! So Monday is indeed an important day in Shiv worshipping land! :)

But the significance of Shiv worship on a Monday is interestingly very similar to some aspects of Valentine's Day as many unmarried women especially in India tend to worship Baba Shiv on a Monday in the hope of finding the perfect husband and in this regard they are beseiging Baba Shiv to act as the Ultimate Matchmaker! Some (perhaps those ladies more intent in their worship) even take it a step further and ask for a husband that is like Shiv himself! You see for in Hinduism Shiv can be many things but one of these many things is the family guy....yep the family guy Shiv can be! And we explored that on here on our festival of Shiv in 2010. So yep the ladies can also ask for a husband with the Shiv like qualities that are often seen as conducive for a good marriage...well at least when Shiv is being the family guy that is!

Shiv is no easy catch himself by the way though just ask poor Parvati (as shown in our cartoon from the festival of Shiv in 2010 above!)she had quite the time getting his attention and I'll tell you this Baba Shiv had quite the run ins with the Hindu equivalent of Cupid...Kaam Dev....poor guy! But you see Shiv really doesn't like to be bothered when he is in meditation! So now let's take in these videos where Kaam Dev is assisted by his wife Rati and sometimes Vasant i.e. spring (the season of birth and love) so that he can:

1. Arouse Shiv out of his meditation so he can marry Parvati.
2. Arouse Shiv and Sati (Parvati in another lifetime) so they can have a son.


And then you can enjoy:

3. Shiv and Sati on their honeymoon...well sort of...no arousals needed!







Happy Valentine's Day from UCP and all at the Meady's Musings Production House! :)

The Festival of Shiv: Day 13 & 14-Shiv a Family Grows!

Shiv and Parvati did a family grow...two sons Ganesh and Kartikeya...however while in earlier blog posts I marveled at how wonderful a religion Hinduism can be for having the ability to look at things microscopically and macroscopically both at the same time...well tonight I have to admit that same wonderful thing has now confused me! :) Because you have to admit Hinduism is like Greek mythology on steroids!:) And there are so many tales in Hinduism as to the exact origins of Ganesh and Kartikeya I don't know why they didn't just say they dropped from the heavens already! :) Or simply flew in with the stalk! LOL! But it seems the more I read on this the more I get confused but you see both the kids are such star kids in their own right so! I guess they are already to be honest super Gods so how could they have parents!:) LOL! I think is what they mean you know...but if we are pretending on the microscopic level it seems they make the stories in some like if Kartikeya was made through union from Shiv and Parvati but in other stories they make it as if Shiv's 'seed' alone spurred into the form of Kartikeya etc etc. All stories of Kartikeya seem to suggest he was nurtured and breast fed by more than one maternal celestial beings however! :)

And in the case of Ganesh well all the stories I've read say he was purely Parvati created and Shiv chopped off his head not knowing that Parvati had created him as her son while Shiv was off as always...after all she was lonely already and he was roaming all over the great big cosmos...but then he is a cosmic dancer can you blame the man for doing his job? LOL! I'd like to think from the Youtube vids I've pulled up from the TV serial Om Namah Shivay that the 'Gods' that reside on various celestial planes no doubt headed by Narad muni that cosmic wanderer himself had a hand in it! But in the end Shiv got the elephant head (a part of the story that makes me shed tears for the baby elephant whose head is taken...awww...:( )and fixed matters! And there you had it my Ishq devata Ganapati or Ganesh was re-born so to speak and all good to go again! So perhaps he is then indeed a creation of both Shiv and Parvati since his new head was placed by Shiv! :)

But everything in Hinduism is always not just microscopic and macroscopic but all inter-twined and interwoven...all over the space-time continuum so Kartikeya was to be born so that he could kill the rakshas Tarakasura and well Ganesh being my Ishq devata we all know of his many exploits on UCP already! :) But here are a couple excerpts to be enjoyed showing the 'Gods' coming from various celestial planes to salute the son of Shiv and Parvati, Kartikeya after he kills Tarakasura and then two more vids showing how Ganesh lost his head...mummy got mad...very mad (in all her nine forms mad!) and then daddy put on a head for him again! LOL! :)

And us here at UCP are left to wonder if in the Shiv household well Kartikeya always boasts about being a daddy's boy whilst Ganesh says he's a mummy's boy! :)

The Festival of Shiv:Day 11-Shiv's Marriage to Parvati!

Photo of carvings of Shiv-Parvati wedding in the Ellora Caves-Maharashtra, India taken from Wikimedia Commons.

Last Tuesday we explored on the festival of Shiv and discovered that yes indeed Shiv can be a family guy. And when we left off the Katha (story) on Tuesday he was on his way to his wedding...in fact we left off as we were following the Baraat (wedding procession) filled with ghosts and goblins each and every side!:)

Tonight on the festival of Shiv we shall explore the actual marriage of Shiv and Parvati and their Honeymoon so to speak on both the cosmic and microcosmic levels since as we also remarked last Tuesday, Hinduism as a religion has the amazing capacity to look at things from the big and small and just like in the Sesame Street classic song...That's about the size of it! It's all about where you put your eyes! :)

So let's put our eyes first on the microscopic details of the story on the material plane so to speak...can you imagine a man showing up for his wedding dressed in loin cloth, a necklace of skulls with ash smeared on his body accompanied by a host of glaring ghosts and goblins! OMG! Well neither did Parvati's family and all but the great goddess fainted and then she 'subtly' hinted to Shiv that he should please put on some wedding clothes...but she did this hinting in song and dance as shown in the classic film- Har Har Mahadev here...



Luckily Shiv changed and the wedding proceeded and then they went on to the honeymoon...which is shown here in a much later TV serial adaptation of the Shiv Katha that was titled Om Namah Shivay...



But what of the cosmic level of this marriage? Well I think this site sums it up well here:

"Throughout Hindu mythology it is well known that one of Shiva's principal functions is the destruction of cosmos. In fact, Shiva has about him a wild, unpredictable, destructive aspect that is often mentioned. As the great cosmic dancer, he periodically performs the tandava, an especially violent dance. Wielding a broken battle-ax, he dances so wildly that the cosmos is destroyed completely. In descriptions of this dance, Shiva's whirling arms and flying locks are said to crash into the heavenly bodies, knocking them off course or destroying them utterly. The mountains shake and the oceans heave as the world is destroyed by his violent dancing. Parvati, in contrast, is portrayed as a patient builder, one who follows Shiva about, trying to soften the violent effects of her husband. She is a great force for preservation and reconstruction in the world and as such offsets the violence of Shiva."

The Festival of Shiv:Days 8 & 9- Shiv as the Family Guy?

Photo courtesy of Webshots

Hinduism is a fascinating religion...at least we here on UCP always find so...since it seems to be so good at taking the big and making it little and also the little becomes the big...just like the Sesame Street tune shown here!:)


So these days on The Festival of Shiv we've been asking ourselves..."Can Shiv be the Family Guy?" LOL! I mean it's so perplexing to think of the cosmic figure hugging up with mummy...a kid on one lap and animals at his feet but yep it happens...and only in Hinduism folks...the big becomes the little bit...that's about the size of it...where you put your eyes...that's about the size of it! :)

According to Hindu legend in fact Shiv marries Paravati on MahaShivratri night! I always loved how my mommy told the story and was so excited by it! :) Especially by the fact that ghosts and goblins...yes folks you heard us right...all sorts of Bhoot (ghosts in Hindi) made up the wedding procession! :) In fact sometimes Shiv is called Bhootnath perhaps to honour those who made up his wedding procession? You see Shiv was just putting on a show and he is really this big cosmic size being so he really had no kith...no kin...so being the cosmic sized figure that he is...he is in charge of it all...and so it is and so it was...he rustled up some ghouls who were more than willing! :) Let's put on a wedding folks! And so it is so it was...

Later in our Festival of Shiv we shall tell more stories about how he then proceeded to his family grow and become yes indeed UCP's very own Family Guy! :)

But for now let's follow the Baraat(wedding procession)folks! Hmmm...as here on UCP we are left to wonder if when we all become 'Shivoham Shivoham...I am Shiv I am Shiv' if we will all too realise that we all too just putting on a show here on planet earth! ;) OM NAMAH SHIVAY!