There is a first time for everything when you are lots sincere and excited about it..
So I would write of my experience of ‘first time’ fasting on
maha shivaratri.i woke up, had a shower, wore a new dress(bought at a store
I’ve always wanted to buy) and feeling good about it like a kid J,started cleaning puja
gadi and photos,idols of gods with mom’s instructions(this is also the first
time thing) did prayer by offering fruits,flowers,leaves that Lord Shiva
likes.All this without eating or drinking anything..so u start to get this giddy
feeling now and then albeit manageable enough..then I went to temple and prayed
shiva sitting in ‘abhishekham’ ritual.i thought of eating or drinking nothing
but I took off ‘theertham’ twice once at home,once at temple, forgetting about
my fasting .didnt have anything till now.Its around 8pm.I’l try to extend the
same till tomorrow.. now and then u’l get acid refluxes in ur stomach as it is
empty besides giddiness.But all thanks to Lord Shiva,u can do anything by chanting his name.
Whats the purpose of fasting?
There lived a hunter named ankiludu in the place called
shakala. He killed many birds and animals to feed his family and one day he
went to the forest and he found no creature to kill that entire day.It was dusk
and he decided not to go home empty-handed. He went upto a branch of tree that
night to sleep but he couldn’t sleep with the fear of animals.so he passed time
all night cutting the leaves of the tree.Next morning he returns home and after
4 days, he died.
Yama’s minions came and were taking him to “hell”,On the
way,Lord Shiva’s minions came and asked to give the hunter to them so that they
can take him to Kailas to Shiva.They began to fight about who should take the
hunter.Later, Shiva’s minions told them “ankiludu unknowingly fasted and
showered leaves of ‘Bilva’ on the Shivalingam under the tree (which he didn’t
see) on the auspicious eve of
Mahashivaratri, so all his previous sins
are absolved by this act and in the last 4 days,he hasn’t killed a
creature;therefore there is no reason for him to be in hell.” Thus ankiludu
attained moksha by fasting and staying awake all the night.
People do fasting and waking up all the night(jaagaaram)
for the same reason .
Its 10:46 and I am continuing my fastJ I totally believe that Lord
Shiva only has given me this strength.
Thus I continued
my fasting till 3am of the next day reading stories of shiva,praying,writing
this article(had to translate this story of shivaratri written in telugu to English
:p)watching a movie now and then and realized its far easy to fast compared to ‘jaagaaram’.broke
my fast eating fruits and slept happily J
