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Maha Shiva Rathri Celebrations: The center performed the
Maha Shiva Rathri Celebrations on Mar 9th & 10th. It is said that
among all the devotees of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Śiva is
the greatest. Lord Śiva regards no one as his relative, yet there is no
one who is not connected with him. He does not regard anyone as
very favorable or abominable. The the remnants of foodstuff left by
him are accepted by other devotees as mahā-prasāda, or great spir-
itual foodstuff. The remnants of foodstuff offered to Lord Kṛṣṇa are
called prasāda, but when the same prasāda is eaten by a great devo-
tee like Lord Śiva, it is called mahā-prasāda. Lord Śiva is so great
that he does not care for the material prosperity for which every one
of us is so eager. Pārvatī, who is the powerful material nature person-
ified, is under his full control as his wife, yet he does not use her
even to build a residential house. He prefers to remain without shel-
ter, and his great wife also agrees to live with him humbly. People in
general worship Goddess Durgā, the wife of Lord Śiva, for material
prosperity, but Lord Śiva engages her in his service without material
desire. He simply advises his great wife that of all kinds of worship,
the worship of Viṣṇu is the highest, and greater than that is the wor-
ship of a great devotee or anything in relation with Viṣṇu. Lord Śiva’s
uncivilized, devilish characteristics are never abominable because he
teaches the sincere devotees of the Lord how to practice detachment
from material enjoyment. He is called Mahādeva, or the greatest of
all demigods, and no one is equal to or greater than him in the mate-
rial world. He is almost equal with Lord Viṣṇu. Although he always as-
sociates with Māyā, Durgā, he is above the reactionary stage of the
three modes of material nature, and although he is in charge of devil-
ish characters in the mode of ignorance, he is not affected by such
association. Lord Śiva never accepts any luxurious dress, garland,
ornament or ointment. But those who are addicted to the decoration
of the body, which is finally eatable by dogs, very luxuriously main-
tain it as the self. Such persons do not understand Lord Śiva, but
they approach him for luxurious material comforts. There are two
kinds of devotees of Lord Śiva. One class is the gross materialist
seeking only bodily comforts from Lord Śiva, and the other class de-
sires to become one with him. They are mostly impersonalists and
prefer to chant śivo ’ham, “I am Śiva,” or “After liberation I shall be-
come one with Lord Śiva.” In other words, the karmīs and jñānīs are
generally devotees of Lord Śiva, but they do not properly understand
his real purpose in life. Sometimes so-called devotees of Lord Śiva
imitate him in using poisonous intoxicants. Lord Śiva once swallowed
an ocean of poison, and thus his throat became blue. The imitation
Śivas try to follow him by indulging in poisons, and thus they are ru-
ined. The real purpose of Lord Śiva is to serve the Soul of the soul,
Lord Kṛṣṇa.