Lord Shiva Ceremony - Shivaratri 2026 - Sanatana Dharma Kendra (California).

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** Significance of Lord Shiva and Lord Ganesha **

In Christianity, divinity is simplified to a trinity - the Father (God with form), the Son, and the Holy Spirit (God without form - ie the abstract universal consciousness). The "Son" refers to Christ as the symbolic "Son of God" and all human beings here on Earth as physical sons and daughters of God.

Whereas Christianity simply refers to a "father" figure to represent God's form, Hinduism had already developed this idea further by depicting three principal "father-like" forms - Brahma (creates the universe), Vishnu (preserves the universe), and Shiva (dissolves the universe and helps recreate it). There are various other forms, including various Goddess forms, but these three are the supreme representation of God having the form of an all-powerful "father of the universe".

Of these three, Lord Shiva best represents a father figure who is universally compassionate and willingly uses his supernatural powers to help all beings - so much so, that he does it to a fault. Lord Ganesha is the divine Son, born to Lord Shiva and Parvati, his Goddess wife.

Lord Shiva is known as the Lord of Renunciation - renouncing transient material and physical attachment in favor of spiritual enlightenment. His standard representation shows him sitting cross legged in deep, blissful meditation. In human terms, he is also known as Adiyogi - the first yogi, or God-enlightened master of the sciences of yoga and meditation. Symbolically, he is represented with the Shiva Lingam, a vertical round cylindrical shape.

Lord Ganesha - the mystical son of Lord Shiva, and hence, the original "Son of God" - facilitates mankind's progress by removing obstacles. That is his official divine role. In essence, a human devotee of God is advised to start any spiritual effort as well as worldly endeavors by first taking help from Ganesha, the mystical Son of God, in order to remove roadblocks (obstacles).
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** Adoption of These Ideas by Christianity **

In fact, not only does Lord Ganesha symbolize the removal of obstacles, but special messengers of God (ie special sages, prophets, and incarnations of God) have actually had the ability to personally take on some of the negative karma of selected followers, thereby lightening the spiritual burden of those fortunate disciples to some degree. This practice has been going on for thousands of years, dating back to ancient India.

As it turns out, we have seen these same ideas take hold in Christianity.

Christ, as a special messenger and incarnation of God in human form, became an enlightened yogi with these powers. Furthermore, Christianity adopted the notion of God as a father figure and Christ as a divine "Son of God" who helps followers through forgiveness of sins (another way to express the idea of reducing negative karma). Hence, the Christian establishment essentially replicated the narrative that originated in India thousands of years earlier - with Shiva as a father figure and his divine son Ganesha as a gatekeeper who removes obstacles.

As practical reality, all human beings are sons and daughters of God. Christian authorities often cite the saying, "the way to the Father is through the Son". On one hand, it refers to Christ as a divine "Son of God" - a facilitator as described above. However, the more significant original meaning, that is often overlooked for convenience, is that people should follow Christ's example of righteous and ethical living - a necessary step in order to return to God. Put another way, it simply means that we human beings, as sons and daughters of God, must first work through our karma and fulfill our role as good humans here on Earth in order to return to the divine source.
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** Shivaratri as Celebration of Lord Shiva **

Shivaratri is the annual celebration of Lord Shiva's birthday.

It is traditionally celebrated by staying up all night to engage in prayer, chanting, and ritual worship of Lord Shiva. As mentioned, since Parvati is the mystical wife of Lord Shiva, and Lord Ganesha is the mystical Son, the celebration of Lord Shiva inevitably includes worshipping them as well.

Here, we listen and see the Shivaratri religious ritual ceremony take place at the Sanatana Dharma Kendra, a Hindu temple in the Bay Area, California. The Shivaratri celebration lasted the entire night and featured devotional music along with periodic ritual ceremonies taking place every couple hours throughout the night. The ritual ceremony shown here is the primary one that took place at midnight. Other similar, shorter rituals took place at other times throughout the night.

We listen to Sanskrit chanting relevant to this religious occasion and see devotees paying respect to Lord Shiva by pouring milk onto the Shiva lingam sculpture.
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#spirituality #religion #hindu #hindufestival #shiva #shivaratri