In an audio message, Pujya Swamiji read from a book entitled Om Namah Shivaya—A Mantra Experience by Sharon Brown who was suffering from cancer. Pujya Swamiji comments, "We are about to read article about a woman's experience with the Om Nama Sivaya and as you read it, you will understand about what the Mantra can do. Not only sages but also modern scientists know the power of the Mantra. Today they're experimenting with all sorts of vibrations. All sorts of experiments are going on with vibrations. 'A single sound can break a mountain to pieces or destroy a city'. Gurudev has said so in his book Japa Yoga. He says the Om Mantra can bring a whole mountain down."

Sharon Brown states in her book, "The fact is that it seemed like cancer was a small enough price to pay for experiencing something that was greater than I could ever imagine. When we hear God, everything becomes nothing, disease, body, the whole world becomes nothing."

Each Prahara ended with chanting the Om Namah Sivaya Mantra while walking around Ganga Rani and offering of bael leaves to the sacred Siva Linga. In the book All About Hinduism our Master states, "For a sincere devotee, the Linga is not a block of stone. It is all radiant Tejas or Chaitanya. The Linga talks to him, makes him shed profuse tears, produces horripilation (hair standing up) and melting of the heart, raises him above body consciousness, helps to commune with the Lord and attain Nirvikalpa Samadhi. What a lot of mystic Sakti there is in the Linga!"

In the reading entitled "Lord Siva's Assurance" by our Divine Master, we read about the significance of the various rituals, "While bathing the Lingam the devotee prays: "O Lord, I will bathe Thee with water, milk, etc. Do Thou kindly bathe me with the milk of wisdom. Do Thou kindly wash me of all my sins, so that the fire of worldliness which is scorching me may be put out once and for all, and I may become one with Thee—the One without a second."

"The Akshara Mana Malai", is an inspired poetical composition by Sri Ramana Maharishi, summing up the entire purpose of the observance of Mahasivaratri. One of its most evocative verses celebrates the death of the ego:

I came to you with the intention of making you mine. But instead it was You
who consumed me. You swallowed my ego. You consumed my individuality
and absorbed me into Yourself.
Now there is peace.

Let us pray to the Lord to shower His Grace upon us to overcome the forces of darkness, of lust, greed, anger and hatred. Through the power of the sacred Mantra and the penance of the night, let us be rid of the "fire of worldliness" and enjoy unbroken peace and bliss.