Maha Shiv Raatri helps school teacher cope with her students

That beautiful feeling as the sun rises on the sacred lingam (stone) on the morning after all night spent praying, chanting and meditating at a mandir, in observance of Maha Shiv Raatri, can never be explained.

“It has to be experienced,” English teacher and classical singer and musician Indira Maharaj said.

While the pandemic would have kept devotees away from the mandirs over the past two years, Maharaj said this year she planned to celebrate the night – February 28 into March 1 – with reverence at the Munroe Road Shiv temple where she worships.

There are temples at most Hindu homes and many people do the prahar – four sessions of three-hours of praying and chanting – at their homes.

“You can do it at home, but on the night of Shiv it is very propitious to attend a mandir and do offering to the Shiv lingam.

“If I don’t attend a mandir for Shiv Raatri, I feel something is missing. There is an emptiness that cannot be explained. It has to be experienced. Maybe because I have been doing it since I was a child, but it’s more than that.

“That morning when the sun rises on the Shiv lingam and we end with the final prayer, I feel a difference.

“My entire body feels rejuvenated. It’s a start-up for me to get ready and keep moving, with clarity, ready to face whatever challenges life throws at me in the physical and on the spiritual plane.”

As a child, being a pundit’s daughter, there was no escaping attending the auspicious night of Shiv Raatri, in honour of Lord Shiva who appears in the sacred form of a lingam.

In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is truth, he is light. He is beautiful. He has many forms but he is formless.

It was a natural course she and her two older brothers took with their parents, Pundit Bhawanie Preshad Maharaj and her mother, Dropatie.

As Maharaj got older and wiser, her perception changed and this religious observance became more than just a duty but a sacred rite she embraced to gain inner peace.

She said Shiv Raatri has helped her to understand who is God, where she is with God as an individual and the path he wants her to follow to reach and connect on that higher spiritual level.

As a school teacher, that spiritual liberation has been the conduit connecting her with her students.

Coming from a primary Hindu board-operated school where she spent the greater part of 16 of her 20 years as a teacher, Maharaj was transferred some time ago to the Carapichaima East Secondary School.

The shock the transition brought was profound. With clarity of mind, harmony and peace within herself, she has been able to see the children, who first intimidated her with their size and tone of voice, from a different perspective.

“I realised that while my new students may look bigger and speak in different tones, their mentality was not that different. They are still children, growing up, trying to find themselves and in trying to find themselves they may make mistakes.

“In their stories are philosophies you need to pay attention to.”

She has been able to emulate the philosophy of the teachings received during yagnas, in the 21 days leading to Shiv Raatri, which has kept her calm, to help and empathise with her students.

In preparation for the night of Lord Shiva, 21-day fasting from meat, alcohol and sexual intimacy is observed by devotees.

A vegetarian, Maharaj performs daily devotions and sometimes nightly yagnas to physically cleanse the body in preparation for the spiritual cleanse. She also uses her gift of music as her offering to Lord Shiva.

“When the body is cleansed the mind see things clearer and is open to new beginnings.”