Vidya Institute Is Delighted To Present
In Celebration Of Maha Shivaratri
Preparation & Commemoration Through Yogic Sadhanas
With Gitte Bechsgaard RP Ph.D. CIYT-III & Sheila Haswell CIYT-III
Hosted Live Online From 07:00am – 08.30am PST & 09:00am – 10.30am PST on Sunday, February 15th, 2026
You’ll Receive A Class Recording Once The Session Finishes
No meditation is considered complete without the blessings of lord Shiva.
The Maha-Deva.
Often considered “The Greatest Of Gods” within the Indian Tradition.
The most auspicious day and night to celebrate Lord Shiva has dawned upon us once more.
Mahashivratri.
This incredibly auspicious evening is at our doorstep, falling on the night of February 15th to February 16th.
During this time of worship, reciting Lord Shiva’s mantra is considered very meritorious and auspicious.
We are encouraged to spend this day and night in prayer, fasting, and meditation.
For this is the day Lord Shiva married Parvati.
Shivaratri is a celebration of their transcendental union. Their cosmic dance together. On this day, Lord Shiva drank the poison emerging from the tides, as the devas and the suras churned the ocean.
So it is said that on this day and night, all poison and negativities in our own lives are destroyed by Lord Shiva.
To enable this process, devotees fast all day and stay up all night performing a variety of rituals, mantras, and meditations.
For on this night, he is easily appeased.
Shiva is honored in a variety of ways, is given many names, and appears in many forms.
One of these forms is Sada Shiva: the one who is always auspicious and pure.
Lord Shiva is described as ever benevolent, ever blissful, carrying an ocean of ambrosial compassion.
Shiva is indeed said to be the embodiment of compassion.
In India everybody believes they will receive the gracious help from Lord Shiva on the night of Shivaratri. The sages tell us that his presence particularly strongly on this auspicious night . His presence is said to be residing in the mantra of Maha mrityunjaya – the greatest of all mantras of radical transformation and rebirth.
Shiva represents the loving compassionate heart.
Compassion for all beings.
In Sanskrit compassion is called Daya, which carries the meaning of compassionate giving.
Another Sanskrit word for compassion is karuna, the mercy of the Divine.
In true compassion, our heart experiences its wholesomeness.
He is portrayed in rich white, as if engulfed in camphor or jasmine.
Smeared with ashes, as he wears a garland of snakes and skulls.
Always holding his trident, his three eyes gaze upon you.
He is naked.
Symbolic of his asceticism.
Of purity of consciousness.
Shiva is the master of Yogins; the beloved of all practitioners of Yogic austerities.
In the Tantra Aloka Abhinava, Gupta speaks of Shiva as the “mother and father” of the cosmos.
As the fundamental power of consciousness.
Shiva and his eternal spouse – Devi in her many forms – are commonly portrayed in ecstatic embrace.
What the Tibetans call “ Mother-Father” or yab-yum.
They belong together.
Their transcendental marriage is the archetype for the union between body and mind, male and female.
Since Shiva represents the innermost self, we can honor the Mahesha by gathering together in meditation and mantra to Lord Shiva on the day of MahaShivaratri.
We can also honor the Adi Yogi – the supreme Yogi by practising our Iyengar Yoga Sadhana. Here, in Sadhana, we can find complete and total peace, total rest, in the Divine.
During our annual Shivaratri workshop, you will join together with yoga teachers, students, and sadhakas alike to chant the sacred mantras for Lord Shiva, including the mahamrityunjaya mantra and Om Namah Shivaya. You will then follow the mantra sadhana with an Iyengar Yoga Sadhana taught to bring the jewels of yoga into embodied practice.
This session will provide a thorough preparation for performing one’s own ShivaRatri sadhana, on the auspicious night between the 15thth and the 16th of March.
It is a tremendous privilege to host this course for the 23rd year here at Vidya Institute.
We very much appreciate your presence.