A legend: In ancient India, a noblewoman named Parvati had a crush on the god Shiva. But he wasn’t open to dating. His previous wife had died, and he was an ascetic; he meditated all day on a mountaintop, wearing only a tiger skin. Rebuffed, Parvati tried to woo him on his own terms. She took up an austerity regime—fasting, meditating for years in the wilderness. It worked. Shiva was impressed, and he came out of seclusion.
The Hindu ceremony of Shivaratri honors their marriage. Devotees fast and stay up all night to celebrate it with chanting. “It’s a long haul,” the yoga teacher Eddie Stern said the other day, at the Broome Street Temple, in SoHo. “But, once you get late into the night— 2, 3, 4 A.M.—the whole atmosphere’s…
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The New Yorker (Digital) - 1 Issue, Mar-16-15