Balaji Temple celebrated Mahashivaratri for 24 hours from the morning of March 5 to the morning of March 6 with rudrabhishekam every three hours around the clock. Bhajans were sung by Seema, Vijayalakshmi and N. Swami with devotees joining in for kirtan and satsang. Sri Narayananda Swami performed three sati namavalli pujas, bilwa astottara puja, sri rudra chamakam, samba sada shiva nama puja Swami spoke about the greatness of Shivaratri: Shiva means auspicious and ratri means night. Swami told the story of Markandaya who at the age of 16 was nearing the end of his years on earth granted by God.

His father was worrying about this and when Markundaya asked him why, he told him that before his birth Shivaji said he could stay only till age 16. Markundaya said he would pray to the Lord Shiva who made him immortal. He wrote the Markundaya Puranas. Swamiji told another story to elaborate about Shivaji. There once was a very poor family who could not even find enough to eat. The father went hunting to feed his family an unfortunately it was too dark and starting raining. Then he saw a deer coming and aimed his bow and arrow at it.

The deer spoke: "O friend, please don't shoot me now, I too, have a family. Let me go say goodbye to my loved ones and I will return. The deer went home but his wife wasn't there so he returned to the hunter and asked for another hour. Meanwhile, the hunter was afraid he would fall asleep so he climbed into a bilwa tree and tied himself to be safe. Then he began to pluck leaves and drop them onto the ground to pass the time. Unbeknownst to him it was Shivaratri and there was a Shiva linga below him.. In the meantime, the deer returned as he promised.

The hunter was about to shoot him when Shivaji appeared in front of him and said "All night you have unknowingly been offering leaves to me with the water from the rain. I am ready to fulfill your wishes. From now on you do not need to worry about taking care of your family." The hunter and family lived a happy and peaceful life after that.

The devotees of Balaji Temple worked happily to support the programs and make the mahaprasadam. Special thanks to Ashok and Leena Chawathe, Sashi and Subhag Nand, Selvakumar.