Coimbatore, Mar 1 (PTI) The night-long celebrations and festivities of 'Maha Shivaratri' began here on Tuesday. "Today is the day to get ignited," said founder of Isha Foundation, a spiritual organisation, Jaggi Vasudev at its yoga centre.

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The pandemic has taken a toll on mankind but it is the nature of human beings to rebound from every adversity, he said.

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“Almost everybody has lost somebody who's dear to them. This has been the story of the world but human beings are resilient. Even if you throw them into a pit of fire, they can still crawl out and come out smiling and living strongly,” he said.

Emphasising on becoming awakened, he said most of the problems on the planet today are due to ignorance.

“Becoming awakened is most important because the world sees much damage, much harm, conflict, environmental and ecological degradations...Most of these problems are not the consequence of evil committed by humans; most of them are a consequence of human ignorance. This is why lighting up is most important," he said.

Earlier, he performed the 'Pancha Bhuta Aradhana' (cleansing of elements) at the Dhyanalinga Yogic Temple.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and a few Union Ministers are participating in the festivities.

Maha Shivaratri is significant because of the spiritual benefits due to natural planetary positions. On this night, the northern hemisphere of the planet is positioned such that there is a natural upsurge of energy in the human system pushing one towards their spiritual peak. It is, therefore, considered important to stay awake with the spine erect to benefit from this upsurge of energy. The forces of the night are agnostic to faith or religion-making Maha Shivaratri.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)