Dont know

The Churning of the Ocean
During the samudra manthan (the churning of the ocean) by the Gods and demons, haalaa-hala, a poison, came out of the ocean. It was so toxic, it could have wiped out the entire creation. At this juncture, on the advice of Lord Vishnu , the gods approached Lord Shiva and prayed to him to protect their lives by consuming this poison. Pleased with their prayers, and out of compassion for living beings,Lord Shiva drank the poison but it was so intense that something was required to cool its effects as his throat became blue. Help was taken from Chandra( Moon God ) and finally a snake was placed around his neck which cooled the effect of the poison and the throat became blue.Thus Lord Shiva is also known as Neelakantha.

Shiva is considered the Adi (first) Guru from whom the yogic tradition originates. According to tradition, the planetary positions on this night are such that there is a powerful natural upsurge of energy in the human system. It is said to be beneficial for one's physical and spiritual well being to stay awake and aware throughout the night. On this day, artists from various fields such as music and dance perform the whole night.
The date for Shivaratri in 2009 was 23 February.
Incidentally, I couldnt sleep that night. After wrestling around my bed with my pillow and my sheets for hours, I stayed up till the sun rose and I wrote and I wrote. I couldnt understand what it was. Then I did what I usually do when I am confused, I just shut my mind off and just observed my thoughts. Some thoughts floated by with a little bit of a push by my uncertainty. But then some really strange stuff started happening. I had so much energy being channeled into my mind that I couldnt understand what I was supposed to do. All the different types of thoughts started coming into mind. thoughts of violence,anger, frustration, love,happiness to name a few.And then suddenly when I got to the thoughts of love everything stopped again. As if it was a sign. Saying "hey look! here is what you can focus on.love."
I told myself that I was slowly becoming insane and thinking up of these crazy ideas. I went to bed for the rest of the morning. When I woke up and looked into a mirror I saw something strange. I saw an imprint of the bedsheet that made a distinct heart on my face.
The next Shivratri is in 2010 on February 12th.

All I had to do was shut my mouth

... and the earth took over. The silence was deafening as the earth stood still in its perpetual motion. As I can feel the breath and blood in my body so too did I feel the same substances of life reverberating through the snow covered landscape. I have never felt so at home (i know, cliché...) but I don't mean where one lives, but that home that is talked about when someone is dying and a loved one say's, "he is finally going home." That moment where the mind stops torturing itself with the constant onslaught of useless thoughts and conceptions and stillness can finally be maintained. Except of course, I wasn't dying, or at least not in the physical sense of the word. I tried to breath in the glory of that moment, but my lungs simply did not have the capacity to take it all in. Nervousness took over for a second as stuffed my skins in backpack and lifted the heal clips of my tele skis, and the silence stopped when they snapped onto the back of my boots. But those moments of seperateness fell away when I started flying - hanging on to every turn like it might be my last. No tracks ahead of me, one track behind me, no resistance: simply alive and utterly free.



When I took of my skis when I got to my car, I put the shackles back on, but it wasn't so bad, having touched the world that I knew existed but normally couldn't touch or feel. Until time stops again I will let those moments dangle in my memory. The search continues, my sails are at full mast, and headed full bore into eternity.