In plain words
Man's very Satya is Divinity itself. To make this manifest the maharṣis and the great souls established the festival days; and the purpose of Mahāśivarātri, too, is precisely this.
Professor Gokak has just told you about the special greatness of Mahāśivarātri, hasn't he? The Purāṇas praise this holy day as the day Śiva swallowed the Hālāhala and saved the world, the day He danced the Tāṇḍava, the day He first took the form of the Liṅga.
All these give ideals through stories; they are only so that man may recognise his true place, and for nothing else. Like pointing with a finger at the moon that is out of reach, they are efforts made to plant experiences and ideals in the heart by way of aspirations.
For example, we speak of the vigil and the vratas of fasting on Śivarātri. Those who have fallen into the new civilisation go tonight to three or four cinemas and sit through them, or play cards till daybreak, and so keep the vigil. Does the crane win Mokṣa, standing on one leg in one-pointed concentration with its gaze fixed on the fish alone? If you drink toddy and arrack and lose your wits, will that pass for rapt absorption? If, angry with your wife, you give up your meal and go to bed hungry, does that become a fast?