Maha Shiva Ratri

I am in Varanasi for Maha Shiva Ratri today and it is truly such an elegant experience. Varanasi is the oldest city in the world and so generally quite dirty– dirt from thousands and thousands of years– and yet on Shivaratri it’s as if the Blessed Lord Shiva sprinkles the entire city with some of the Stardust from His feet and everything sparkles.
The city is full of activity and the women and the men are dressed in the most beautiful clothes. Incredible silk Sari and kurtas and Sadhus come from far and wide, the snake charmers are everywhere , the beggars are on the streets lined up with their bowls, the dead bodies burning at the burning ghats and the arts are wafting through the air!!! the singers singing, the dancers dancing, painters painting, all glorifying the great presence of love that is Shiva.
If you ever have a chance to come to Varanasi for Shivaratri do take it and come here for one reason, to know LOVE 💕 but be prepared to truly know love, from its most gritty human experience of poverty, loss and deprivation, to its elegant glorification of the arts and sublime spiritual states.
Love has as many faces as humanity and beyond! We are all part of the Cosmic Kaleidoscope!!!
Every face is important! No mood is wrong! No gesture imperfect ! We are one, intertwined, interdependent without each other we could not exist. The Great Lord and the Great Mother have created this world as a reflection of the love they wish to share with us.
Acceptance of what is is the way to understand what is beyond.🙏

On very personal level tonight I pray for the courage of acceptance, I pray for the courage of love of the many faces within myself and within the world.
Om Namaha Shivaya 🔱💞🔱