Red Room Where the Writers Are

        I had been a member of the Hare Krishna temple since I was 14 years old. I had an adopted family there that cared a great deal about me. Anytime I had a spiritual question, and I had many, I could go to my "dad" and he always had an answer for me. He had explained to me that we could not worship Lord Shiva as God, but as a pure devotee of God. Only the Supreme Lord is God. According to Vaisnava Hindus, the Supreme Lord is Vishnu. And Krishna is his most awesome incarnation.

      I was reading my emails from my Vaisnavi women's group when a header struck my eye..."Happy Shiva Ratri" it read. Opening the email, I read "Happy Shiva Ratri ladies...you know what to do!"  Well, I didn't. I had never heard of Shiva Ratri. I replied to the email, " I don't know what to do! What is Shiva Ratri?" Erica answered me back, "Shiva Ratri is a celebration of Lord Shiva. If you are married you fast all day and pray to Lord Shiva that He will help your husband treat you as well as He treats His wife Parvati. If you are not married, you pray He will send you a husband that treats you as well as He treats Parvati. They have a huge puja (ritual) at the Hindu temple, but the Hare Krishna's don't really celebrate it."

      A puja! I had always loved seeing religious rituals, from any religion. In the past I had been to Christian churches, Catholic masses, Greek Orthodox masses, kirtans at the Hare Krishna Temple, Wiccan circles, Muslim services, Jewish services. I had never been to a Hindu temple, much less seen a puja for any other Deity other than Lord Krishna. I looked online for information and found a local Hindu temple.

    Maha Shiva Ratri, or literally The Great Night of Shiva, falls on the 13th night, 14th day of the waning moon. Falling somewhere in the months of February and March, it is a great cause for celebrations for Hindus everywhere. There is an all night vigil at most temples, where the Shiva Linga (deity) is bathed lovingly every two hours with water, honey, milk, juice and yogurt. Bajans, or devotional songs are sung throughout the night, and worshippers are encouraged to make offerings to the Linga in the form of flowers or fruits.

   I asked my son if he wanted to go and he flatly refused. He is not and probably never will be interested in any religion besides casual Christianity. I called my girlfriend Vrindavni and asked if her daughter Rhee could go with me. She wasn't really enthusiastic about watching her granddaughter and argued that it was Tuesday, a school night , but I begged her because I really didn't want to go alone. She finally agreed and I dressed in my favorite green sari, picked Rhee up and off we went to the Hindu temple.

   The place was packed. We barely found a spot on the floor in the back of the temple. People were coming in with gallons of whole milk and placing them up in the front where the pujaris were chanting the Holy Names of Shiva and pouring the milk over the Linga. Rhee and I watched, fascinated. The milk was going everywhere! In our temple, anything offered in that manner would have been carefully saved and given to the devotees as maha prasadam (blessed food) A line had formed to the left of the temple room, and people were slowly filing before the Diety to offer their flowers and pray. The floor in front of the Diety was covered with bananas, oranges and apples. There was a huge Aum symbol flower arangement. Incense perfumed the air. It was very spiritually moving.

    "I'm going up there, you coming?" I asked Rhee. She shook her head, "No I will save our spots" She had a point. If we had both left someone would have swooped right in and sat in our places. The room was wall to wall people! I got up and took a place in line. The line moved pretty quickly. Before I knew it, I was face to face with the Lord Himself. I guess the panic showed on my face because the pujari smiled at me and told me to take a flower out of the dish in front of the Linga and wave it in circles while I prayed to Shiva for what I wanted. I took an orange carnation and offered it, silently praying, "Lord, I am happy by myself, but if You have someone for me, You can go ahead and send him my way" I laid the flower in the offering plate and the pujari offered me an orange. I looked at him, puzzled, for instruction. He laughed, "It's an orange, you eat it!" I laughed and said, "Ok, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to offer this too." He said, "No, it has been offered, it is mahaprasad, you eat it now and recieve the grace of Lord Shiva" I thanked him and made my way through the sea of people to where Rhiannon had been saving our seats. "What was it like?" she wanted to know. "Awesome" was all I could say. I had been moved in a way I was unable to put into words. I was trying to think of how to tell her how I was feeling when a man came up to me and handed me a flower with a smile. I looked up at him and smiled back. He walked away and I looked at Rhee, "what was that all about?" No less than 4 other men came to me and offered me flowers. I accepted them all graciously, but I was unsure of what to do with them. None of the men stayed to talk. No one asked my name.

I  sat in the temple with Rhee for a while longer and watched the people coming in and out. A woman sitting in front of us waved her husband over. "What took you so long? Did you get the milk?" she asked. The man showed her the gallon of two percent milk he had. "What were you thinking?,she cried", You cant offer Shiva two percent milk!!" "It was all they had", her husband replied sheepishly. Rhee and I looked at each other and laughed. The line had shrunk to about 5 people waiting. I went back to the altar and gave my flowers to the Lord, bowed my head in obeisance and Rhiannon and I went out into the cold night.