Shivaratri is the most important festival for the entire humanity because it signifies the incarnation of
incorporeal God Shiva for re-establishing heaven on earth, On Shivaratri devout people in India observe
fast which is symbolic of the purification of body and soul. People also keep awake the whole night, and
this signifies the vigil against looting by dacoits who have looted human soul of its innate qualities of
peace, purity, power, truth, love, happiness and bliss. People visit Shiva temples where they pour milk and
water over the Shivlinga, the oval stone representing incorporeal God, Shiva. This offering is poured into a
vessel suspended above the

Linga, on which the fluid falls drop by drop, symbolizes the deep contemplation on Godly versions, one by
one, by His children. Through this contemplation the souls not only get clarity on points of spiritual
knowledge, but also the souls get purified. Such purification is very important for ensuring one’s presence
in the Golden Age which God re-establishes during the Auspicious Confluence Age that starts with the
incarnation of God Shiva and lasts until the establishment of the Golden Age, whereby starting a new cycle
of the 'Eternal World Drama’. Some people consume potions of Bhang, an intoxicating herb, and this
practice signifies the spiritual intoxication of human souls during the Confluence Age. It is paradoxical that
those who practice these rituals are usually unaware of the spiritual significance stated above, and hence
are deprived of the full reward, I.e. Deity-hood in the Golden Age. Let us now try to understand the correct
spiritual significance of Shivaratri so that we can benefit fully from Godly knowledge that is available only
during the Auspicious Confluence Age. First of all we have to understand that a human being is a
combination of material body and nonmaterial soul, spirit, Atma, Rooh or psyche. The non-material soul
does not belong to the material world where we live. It originally belongs to the soul-world called
Brahmalok, Shanti Dham, Nirvan Dham or Mool Vatan in Hindi. It is also called incorporeal world because it
is devoid of any matter that constitute corporeal forms. This realm is the farthest from the corporeal
world, and is filled with Brahm, the golden red light which is sometimes called the sixth element. In this
silence world dwells God Shiva, the Supreme Father along with His children – the human souls. The souls in
Paramdham are devoid of the faculties of mind, intellect, and body, and hence there is no vibration of
thought, speech or deed. That is why Supreme silence prevails here. Silence is the original attribute of the
soul and hence every soul longs for peace. All great achievements of the human beings are attained
through contemplation in silence.

Souls are made up of seven basic attributes – knowledge, peace, love, joy, purity, power and bliss. In fact
these attributes are metaphysical energies and these come into play through the faculties of mind,
intellect and personality traits, called Sanskaras in Hindi, when the soul is embodied in the corporeal
world. The cosmic egg (Brahmand) is constituted by three worlds – the incorporeal world of souls and the
Supreme Soul is the outer most and is referred to as the silence-world, the corporeal world of matter,
sound and action- at the level of thought , speech and deed-is the inner most realm which is referred to as
the 'movie-talky-world. In between these two is the subtle world where there is no matter and no sound
and it is the realm of subtle deities – Brahma, Vishnu and Shankar who communicate through thought
vibrations. The soul is metaphorically compared to an actor who plays his varied roles by getting embodied
in the corporeal world. The body is his costume, planet earth is a revolving drama stage, the sun, moon
and stars provide lighting for the stage, plants, flowers, animals and birds provide stage decoration. As this
drama is eternal, the events in this drama have to repeat exactly after a period, which God has revealed to
be only 5000 years. That means, every 5000 years you will be reading the same article at the same time,
date, month and year. In order to sustain such a huge drama eternally, enormous amount of energy is
required, and as per the second law of thermodynamics, this energy source is bound to dwindle and come
to a halt. The implication is that some external agency would be required in order to sustain the cycle of
the world drama eternally, and this agency should be outside the physical world, where the 'Law of
Entropy’ is not operative. Hence it stands to reason that God only can be that agency who functions as the
eternal source of energy. How is God able to do this? In order to understand the answer to the above
question, we have to view the whole creation as an eternal interplay of three point-sources of energy,
both physical and metaphysical. God is the eternal generator of metaphysical energy, while souls are like
batteries or point-sources of meta-physical energy, and atom is the point-source of physical energy. The
eternal drama is an eternal interplay between these three energy sources. There is a general consensus
among scientists and philosophers that when human consciousness (soul) gets localized in a body which is
made of five gross elements of nature – earth, water, fire. air and space, former rules over the latter
through its subtle energies of mind and intellect. Metaphorically, we may consider the body as a car and
the soul as its driver. The soul localizes in the center of the brain, in between three endocrine glands –
pituitary, pineal and hypothalamus. Sitting over here soul controls the body through the nervous and
endocrine systems. For this the spiritual energy has to reach every cell of the body. Thus the embodied
soul is bound to the 100 trillion cells of the body. Although the somatic cells are endowed with the faculty
of life, by which they are able to multiply independent of the soul, when suitable biological environment is
provided, they cannot function as an organ system in the absence of the regulatory role of the soul.

In fact God interferes directly with the world drama, only when the souls and atoms, through their
interactions, deplete the 'available energy’ and when the replenishment is urgently required, this critical
situation is currently on since there is maximum entropy and consequent disorder and chaos in the world
now. God, being the Creator, Director and Principal Actor of the eternal drama, appears on the drama
stage by incarnating into the body of an aged person, and starts speaking Godly knowledge, revealing the
secrets about soul, Supreme Soul, eternal world drama, law of Karma, and teach Rajyoga, the technology
for recharging the soul by linking the self with the Supreme Soul, the eternal generator of spiritual powers.
Once the required number of human souls gets transformed, from profane to divine, the transformation of
the physical world takes place automatically. When the human beings become divine beings, the world of
deities, the paradise on earth becomes a reality.

The celebration of Shivaratri is in remembrance of this benevolent act of God Shiva in each cycle (Kalpa) of
the eternal world drama. The human medium used for this act of God has been renamed by Him as
Prajapita Brahma, and he has been instrumental for establishing the Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya
Vishwa Vidyalaya which now has over 7000 branches in 130 countries in all the five continents. Godly
knowledge and Rajyoga are taught in these institutions free of charge. From a humble beginning of a
personal Satsang in 1937, at Hyderabad, Sindh Province (now in Pakistan), it has grown into a non-
governmental organization (NGO) having consultative status with U.N. affiliates – UNICEF and ECOSOC. This
institution is celebrating Shivaratri as 71st Shivajayanti this year by conducting various public functions for
disseminating Godly knowledge to the public without any discrimination on the basis of caste, faith, age,
gender, educational or social status. Let us all make use of their services for personal and universal
transformation, and become partners in God’s enterprise and thus ensure your presence in the
forthcoming new world of spiritual and human values.