Please Accept My Humble Obeisances.
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada, Sri Gurudev & Sri Gauranga.
Hare Krishna
Lord Shiva is top most Vaisnava. Feb. 20 is his holy day of Shivaratri. How will we (Vaisnava's) observe this auspicious occasion?
Your Servant,
Bhakta David
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Here in Bangalore, some of the local temples are going on a procession in the night and our temple has decided to take part in it. So, the plan is to go out in the night with as much big group of devotees as possible and do Hari Naama sankirthan on the streets.
Hare Krishna !! My pranAms to the Bhagavan and the Bhagavathas !!
Observing Shiv-Ratri has helped many souls to achieve love for Krishna in the same birth or atleast in the next birth. Arjuna, being a devotee of Siva, was fortunate to get the nectar of Bhagavad-Gita explained to him by Lord Krishna and also realise Krishna as his spiritual master (until then he was merely treating Krishna as a friend and maternal cousin!). Such is the power of devotion to Siva (the supreme vaishnava).
So in this day, one can visit a Siva temple, observe with devotion services done to him and earnestly pray to be blessed with love and knowledge of krishna in this birth and realize krishna as the spiritual master. Fasting, abstinence from sensual attractions and singing glories of Siva - like panchakshara nama chanting, listening to/chanting Sri Rudram-Chamakam, reading the story of Samudra manthan and remembering the pastime where he drank poison for the welfare of all and keeping vigil overnight until next morning is a service that can done on Shiv-Ratri.
Paying respects to Siva, serving him and his devotees and loving him dearly will only please Krishna more!!
In loving service to Bhagavan and Bhagavathas,
Suresh
Hare Krishna. PAMHO. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
This year (2012), February 20th marks the anniversary of Lord Siva's appearance day, celebrating his advent from between Lord Brahma's eyebrows. Srimad-Bhagavatam, 12.13.16 says, about Lord Siva:
vaishnavanam yatha shambhu , “Amongst all Vaishnavas, Lord Siva is the best."
Srila Prabhupada, in Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead describes one observance of Siva Ratri by some of Krishna's greatest devotees:
" Once upon a time, the cowherd men of Vrindavana, headed by Nanda Maharaja, desired to go to Ambikavana to observe the Siva-ratri ceremony. The rasa-lila was performed during the autumn, and after that the next big ceremony is Holi, or the Dolayatra ceremony. Between the Dolayatra ceremony and the rasa-lila ceremony there is an important ceremony called Siva-ratri, which is especially observed by the Shaivites, or devotees of Lord Siva.
Sometimes the Vaishavas also observe this ceremony because they accept Lord Siva as the foremost Vaishnava. But the function of Siva-ratri is not observed very regularly by the bhaktas, or devotees of Krishna. Under the circumstances, Srimad-Bhagavatam states that Nanda Maharaja and the other cowherd men “once upon a time desired.” This means that they were not regularly observing the Siva-ratri function but that once upon a time they wanted to go to Ambikavana out of curiosity."