'In Love (devotion), even an object gains life. Stones speak to you, the Sun, the Moon and the whole Creation become alive and Divine.' ~ Sri Sri Ravishankar

Today is Mahashivaratri. An auspicious day in the Hindu calendar, when the transcendental principal infuses with the mind, body and speech. Shiva on the one hand, is the embodiment of love, beauty, playfulness and innocence, while on the other is the ruthless destroyer! One that is easily angered, and the one that destroys/changes all that which needs to be changed. Such amazing co-existence of these apparent contradictions...

Today, while sitting for Puja, I remarked to Urvi that it was a pity we did not have a Shiv lingam at home. So Urvi tells me she has an idea! She goes downstairs and finds a stone, roughly the shape of a lingam, then she washes and scrubs it clean. She then paints 3 parallel lines on it with sandalwood paste, and puts a red dot in the center with the kumkum paste, and hands it to me. 'Mamma, there you go,' she says :)

We then decorated it with flowers and bel leaves, poured water on it and chanted 'Om Namah Shivaya'.

I think our Shiva is feeling rather pampered :)