Sanskrit, if it is the original language since the creation, is also the source of world literature. Laura Elizabeth Poor observes in her book, Sanskrit and Its Kindred Literature-Studies in Comparative Mythology, “I propose to write about the literature of different nations and different centuries. I wish to show that this literature is not many but one; that the same leading ideas have arisen at epochs apparently separated from each other; that each nation however isolated it may seem, is, in reality, a link in the great chain of development of the human mind; in other words to show the unity and continuity of literature…”

“The histories of Phoenicians, Cartheginians, Romans or Greeks, were so many detached pieces of information…But the moment the mind realizes…that one nation is connected with all others, its history becomes delightful and inspiring…And it is to the Sanskrit language that we owe this entire change…Sanskrit was a spoken language at the of Solomon, 1015 B.C., also of Alexander, 324 B.C.”

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In this same line of thought, it has been determined that the Sanskrit Rig-Veda is the oldest piece of literature in the world. Reverend Morris Philip, in his book The Teaching of the Vedas (p.213), concludes, “After the latest researches into the history and chronology of the book of Old Testament, we may safely now call the Rigveda as the oldest book not only of the Indian community, but of the whole world.”

A.A.Macdonell provides a few more details in his book, India’s Past, about how various literature in the world are all connected. In fact, he explains that many of the world’s fairy tales come from India. “The history of how India’s fairy tales and fables migrated from one country to another to nearly all the people of Europe and Asia, and even to African tribes from their original home in India, borders on the marvellous. It is not a case of single stories finding their way by word of mouth…from India to other countries, but of whole Indian books becoming through the medium of translations the common property of the world…many fairy tales current among the various people can be traced to their original home in India.”

When we begin to compare the ancient legends and stories of one country with another, and one time period with another, we can recognize how similar and yet different they are. The conclusion is that they had to have come from one basic source, one people that later became divided and spread out over a wide area. Each part of this society must have brought with them into the new lands their old legends that were once common to all. Many of these stories were later shaped and altered according to the place they lived, and the natural aesthetic and artistic preferences they acquired, while the primary legends have been the most likely to maintain their storyline. Though various mythologies may have similarities, the most common traits can be seen between any of them and the Vedic traditions. These kinds of similarities between these myths and the Vedic legends makes it clear that the Vedic tradition is the original from which all others are derived.

An example of this is the Indian classic Ramayana, from India the Ramayana has travelled to many other countries who now claims their own versions of the epic. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, even Jamaica and Africa have versions of the Ramayana that have slight differences from the Indian Ramayana. Thus we can see how this early Sanskrit literature travelled throughout the world and became local versions of what originated in India. The next section further corroborates this point.

Source: stephen-knapp.com

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Water is of special importance in Hinduism. Apart from its life-sustaining properties, holy rivers are immensely used for devoutness.

Bathing also has religious significance, a holy bath in the waters of the sacred rivers are believed to absolve all from sins and fear of death. Mother Ganga is the holiest of the seven rivers and purifies the bather of the sins. Most rivers are considered female and are personified as goddesses. Most of the holy places in India like Haridwar, Varanasi, Nasik, Talakaveri, Patna and Ujjain are situated along the banks of the seven holy rivers. Apart from the rivers certain spots on seashore and lakes are also considered holy.

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Following are the Top 7 Holy Rivers of India

Ganga

River Ganga, also known as the Ganges, is the greatest waterway in India. Ganga is also one of the longest rivers in the world. Ganga originates in the Himalayas at Gaumukh and flows into the bay of Bay of Bengal. The great river provides water to many places, and many places rely on it.

The Ganges is synonymous to spirituality in India and has always been a religious icon in the world. Ganga is a spiritual center because the people of India rely on it for most of the life functions in the area. A holy dip in the river Ganga is believed to absolve all from the accumulated sins.

The river is the heart of Hinduism, inscribed profusely in the in the Vedas, the Puranas and the two Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. When a person dies and cremated their remains are released into the river because it is believed that is purifies the soul. We have hundreds of temples situated along the banks of river Ganga.

Yamuna

Originating from the Champasar Glacier at an altitude of 4421 m in the state of Uttarkhand, river Yamuna or Yamnotri has a special mention in the Hindu mythology. Some believed that the source of river Yamuna is a glacial lake known as the Saptarishi Kund. In this place situated is a scared temple dedicated to Goddess Yamuna, which remains closed from November to May.

According to Hindu mythology Yamuna is the consort of Lord Shri Krishna. According to tradition, it is believed that Yamuna and Yama are the offspring of Sun God ‘Surya’. Hence whoever takes a dip in the holy waters of the river Yamuna gets free from the fear of death. Yamuna and Ganga are the most holy rivers in India.

Sarasvati

River Sarasvati does not have a complete physical existence today but there were special references to it in the ancient Indian literature of the Vedic period. It’s an ancient river that flowed in northern India during the Vedic era. The Triveni Sangam in Allahabad is a confluence of 3 rivers, the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati.

Of these three saraswati is invisible and is believed to flow underground and join the other two rivers from underground. This place is a sacred place for the Hindus.

Godavari

The River Godavari originates near Trimbak in Nashik and flows towards the Eastern Ghats and finally merges into Bay of Bengal. Godavari is the second largest river and considered to be one of the seven holy rivers.

Kumbh Mela held at Nashik is well known as an important centre of pilgrimage in India because of the holy river Godavari. A holy dip in the sacred water of river Godavari is believed to free all from the sins.

Kaveri River

Kaveri River or Cauvery is a very sacred river in the southern region of India. It originates from the Brahmagiri Hill in the Western Ghats and flow towards the Bay of Bengal. The river travels along the states Karnataka and Tamilnadu in the southeastern direction.

River Kavery is well inscribed in Tamil literature because of its holy importance and sacredness. The striking Shivasamudram falls of Kaveri River is the second biggest water falls in India.

Narmada

Narmada is also one of the most holy of the seven rivers of India. Originating from the Maikala ranges at Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh, Narmada flows between the Vindhya and satpura ranges in a southwestern direction finally meeting into the Gulf of Cambay, an inlet of the Arabian Sea.

It is believed that Narmada descended from the sky as by the order of Lord Shiva. According to Hindu mythology river Narmada free a human soul from all the sins and makes him pure by simply her divine sight.

Kshipra River

Kshipra River, also known as the Shipra rises from the Vindhya Range north of Dhar and flows across the Malwa Plateau to meet the Chambal River. It is also one of the holy rivers of Hinduism. The holy city of Ujjain is situated on the banks of the river Kshipra. Ujjain is an ancient city located in the Malwa region in central India renowned for one of the twelve celebrated Jyotirlingas in India known as Mahakaleshwar.

Kumbh Mela festival, held after every 12 years, takes place in Ujjain and millions of devotees flock to take a holy bath in the sacred Kshipra River.

Source: www.indiamarks.com

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Aarti is one of the most important aspect of prayers in Hinduism which symbolizes the removal of darkness by true spiritual enlightenment. It is performed by lighting a ghee lamp in front of the deity while praying.

On many occasions, Hindus light a camphor or kapoor as an offering to God at the end of the aarti. Although we have probably all seen this act, many of us are not aware of the importance of this gesture.

When the camphor is lit, it burns itself out, fully evaporating until there is no residue left in the prayer utensil, leaving behind a sweet fragrance in the air instead. In the same manner, it symbolizes union with God and the promise of the devotee to burn their ego completely without leaving any residue while spreading the light of knowledge to other lives that touches theirs, no matter how brief a time. Just like the scent emanating from the camphor, the devotee, devoid of his ego and arrogance, spreads goodness around themselves.

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The flame of the camphor also signifies the flame of consciousness of Lord Shiva where we can surrender all our egos to be burned under the influence of God, no longer to be seen within us. We close our eyes while performing the aarti as if to look within, to our very self or Atman. Self realization can be achieved by realizing ourselves with the flame of knowledge.

At the end of the prayer, the devotee places cupped hands over the flame and touches the eyes and top of the head, symbolizing the illumination of vision and purity of thought.

Camphor is made through an ancient Ayurvedic method by distilling the bark and wood of a coniferous tree called Camphor Laurel (Cinnamomum camphor) that is largely found in Asia, particularly in India, Sumatra, Indonesia and Borneo. White camphor is a crystalline substance with the chemical formula C10H16O, which is a fantastic anti-oxidant.

As an excellent germicide, camphor is burned to purify the atmosphere, it is also believed to remove negativity from the environment.

Absorbed through the skin, camphor produces a feeling of cooling similar to that of menthol and acts as a slight local anesthetic and anti-microbial substance. It is a decongestant and can be used as an essential oil for aromatherapy or topical application.

Used properly with medicinal understanding, it can decrease the harshness of nervous disorder as well as convulsions, epileptic episodes, nervousness, mental tension as well as chronic anxiety. It is believed to be toxic to insects and is sometimes used as a repellent and also to deter snakes and other reptiles due to its strong odor.

In this manner, camphor not only has a highly spiritual value in Hindu customs but can also be beneficial to the environment in which it is burned. Again, just like anything else, the use of camphor should be in moderation to avoid any side effects it may cause.

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In Hindu society, the term gotra means clan. It broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor.

However, all families having same gotra need not be cousins. They can be descendants of sons or disciples or even adopted sons of the Rishi(Seer), who is the root and whose name is used as Gotra. For example if a person says that he belongs to the Kutsa Gotra then it means that he traces back his male ancestry to the ancient Rishi (Saint or Seer) Kutsa.

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Gotra means cowshed (Go=Cow, tra=shed) in Sanskrit. Paini defines gotra for grammatical purposes as apatyam pautraprabhrti gotram (IV. 1. 162), which means “the word gotra denotes the progeny (of a sage) beginning with the son’s son. This system was started among Brahmins, with a purpose to classify and identify the families in the community.

Hindu Brahmins identify their male lineage by considering themselves to be the descendants of the 8 great Rishis i.e Saptarishis (The Seven Sacred Saints) + Bharadwaja Rishi. So the list of root Brahmin Gotras is as follows :

. Angirasa
. Atri
. Gautam
. Kashyapa
. Bhrigu
. Vasistha
. Kutsa
. Bharadwaja

The offspring (apatya) of these eight are gotras and others than these are called ‘ gotravayava. These eight sages are called gotrakarins from whom all the 49 gotras (especially of the Brahmins) have evolved.

For instance, from Atri sprang the Atreya and Gavisthiras gotras.In almost all Hindu families, marriage within the same gotra is prohibited, since people with same gotra are considered to be siblings.

But the hidden reason behind this practice is the ‘Y’ Chromosome which is expected to be common among all male in same gotra. So, the woman too carries similar ‘X’ Chromosome and if married, their offspring may be born with birth defects. Few families even maintain their Pravara which is a list of all seers through which their Gotra was derived.

It connects to the root Seer. Gotra is always passed on from father to children among most Hindus, just like lastname(surname) is passed on worldwide. However, among Malayalis and Tulu’s its passed on from mother to children.

Additional rule in the Gotra system is that, even if the Bride and Bridegroom belong to different Gotras, they still cannot get married even if just one of their Gotra Pravara matches. Now, why only male carries fixed lastname and gotra and why female can change her last name, gotra after marriage ?

Genes and Chromosomes Among Humans

Humans have 23 pairs of Chromosomes and in each pair one Chromosome comes from the father and the other comes from the mother. So in all we have 46 Chromosomes in every cell, of which 23 come from the mother and 23 from the father.

Of these 23 pairs, there is one pair called the Sex Chromosomes which decide the gender of the person. During conception, if the resultant cell has XX sex chromosomes then the child will be a girl and if it is XY then the child will be a boy. X chromosome decides the female attributes of a person and Y Chromosome decides the male attributes of a person.

When the initial embryonic cell has XY chromosome, the female attributes get suppressed by the genes in the Y Chromosome and the embryo develops into a male child. Since only men have Y Chromosomes, son always gets his Y Chromosome from his father and the X Chromosome from his mother. On the other hand daughters always get their X Chromosomes, one each from both father and mother.

So the Y Chromosome is always preserved throughout a male lineage (Father – Son – Grandson etc) because a Son always gets it from his father, while the X Chromosome is not preserved in the female lineage (Mother, Daughter, Grand Daughter etc) because it comes from both father and mother.

A mother will pass either her mother’s X Chromosome to her Children or her father’s X Chromosome to her children or a combination of both because of both her X Chromosomes getting mixed (called as Crossover).

On the other hand, a Son always gets his father’s Y Chromosome and that too almost intact without any changes because there is no corresponding another Y chromosome in his cells to do any mixing as his combination is XY, while that of females is XX which hence allows for mixing as both are X Chromosomes.

Women never get this Y Chromosome in their body. And hence Y Chromosome plays a crucial role in modern genetics in identifying the Genealogy ie male ancestry of a person. And the Gotra system was designed to track down the root Y Chromosome of a person quite easily. If a person belongs to Angirasa Gotra then it means that his Y Chromosome came all the way down over thousands of years of timespan from the Rishi Angirasa!

And if a person belongs to a Gotra (say Bharadwaja) with Pravaras (Angirasa, Bhaarhaspatya, Bharadwaja), then it means that the person’s Y Chromosome came all the way down from Angirasa to Bhaarhaspatya to Bharadwaja to the person.

This also makes it clear why females are said to belong to the Gotra of their husbands after marriage. That is because women do not carry Y Chromosome, and their Sons will carry the Y Chromosome of the Father and hence the Gotra of a woman is said to be that of her husband after marriage.

Y is the only Chromosome which does not have a similar pair in the human body. The pair of the Y Chromosome in humans is X Chromosome which is significantly different from Y Chromosome. Even the size of the Y Chromosome is just about one third the size of the X Chromosome. In other words throughout evolution the size of the Y Chromosome has been decreasing and it has lost most of its genes and has been reduced to its current size.

Scientists are debating whether Y Chromosome will be able to survive for more than a few million years into the future or whether it will gradually vanish, and if it does so whether it will cause males to become extinct! Obviously because Y Chromosome is the one which makes a person male or a man.

Y Chromosome has to depend on itself to repair any of its injuries and for that it has created duplicate copies of its genes within itself. However this does not stop DNA damages in Y Chromosome which escape its local repair process from being propagated into the offspring males.

This causes Y Chromosomes to accumulate more and more defects over a prolonged period of evolution and scientists believe that this is what is causing the Y Chromosome to keep losing its weight continuously.

Y Chromosome which is crucial for the creation and evolution of males has a fundamental weakness which is denying it participation in the normal process of evolution via Chromosomal mix and match to create better versions in every successive generation, and this weakness MAY lead to the extinction of Y Chromosome altogether over the next few million years, and if that happens scientists are not sure whether that would cause males to become extinct or not.

And that is because Scientists are not sure whether any other Chromosome in the 23 pairs will be able to take over the role of the Y Chromosome or not.

On the other hand, it is not necessary that humanity will not be able to survive if males become extinct. Note that females do not need the Y Chromosome, and since all females have X Chromosomes, it would be still possible to create a mechanism where X Chromosomes from different females are used to create offspring, say like injecting the nuclei from the egg of one female into the egg of another female to fertilize it and that would grow into a girl child. So yes, that would be a humanity where only females exist.

Even modern scientists have concluded that children born to parents having blood relation (like cousins) can have birth defects. For example, there is a recessive dangerous gene in one person.

What this means is that say a person is carrying a dangerous abnormality causing gene in one of his chromosome, but whose effect has been hidden in that person (or is not being expressed) because the corresponding gene in the pairing Chromosome is stronger and hence is preventing this abnormality causing gene from activating.

Now there are fair chances that his offsprings will be carriers of these genes throughout successive generations. As long as they keep marrying outside his genetic imprint, there is a fair chance that the defective gene will remain inactive since others outside this person’s lineage most probably do not have that defective gene.

Now if after 5-10 generations down the line say one of his descendants marries some other descendant who may be really far away cousins. But then there is a possibility that both of them are still carrying the defective gene, and in that case their children will definitely have the defective gene express itself and cause the genetic abnormality in them as both the Chromosomes in the pair have the defective genes.

Hence, the marriages between cousins always have a chance of causing an otherwise recessive, defective genes to express themselves resulting in children with genetic abnormalities.

So, Ancient Vedic Rishis created the Gotra system where they barred marriage between a boy and a girl belonging to the same Gotra no matter how deep the lineage tree was, in a bid to prevent inbreeding and completely eliminate all recessive defective genes from the human DNA.

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In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is regarded as the representation of the Supreme Being. He is known as the third element in the Hindu Trinity (Trimurti), the other two members being Lord Brahma – the creator and Lord Vishnu – the protector.

He controls the 5 elements of nature named as the Pancha Bhoota – Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space. Pancha Bhoota Stalams In South India, five temples were built for each representing the manifestation of the five prime elements of nature. Known as Pancha Bhoota Stalam, these temples are dedicated to Lord Shiva.

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Five elements of nature, in these temples, are believed to be manifested in the form of five Lingams, the divinity of Lord Shiva. Each lingam of Shiva is known by the name of element represented by them. ‘Pancha’ indicates Five, ‘Bhoota’ means elements and ‘Stala’ means place. All these temples are located in South India with four of these temples in Tamil Nadu and one in present-day Andhra Pradesh.

These set of five temples are considered to be of great importance in south India. The temple for water is in Thiruvanaikaval, fire is in Thiruvannamalai , air is in Kalahasti , earth is in Kanchipuram and The temple for space/sky is in Chidambaram. Geographic specialty The five temples were built according to the yogic sciences, and are placed in a certain geographic alignment with each other, so that the entire region reverberated with the possibility they offered.

Three of the five Pancha Bhoota Stalam temples stand on a straight line exactly at 79 degree 41 minutes East longitude. Chidambaram Natrajana Temple, Kanchipuram Ekambareswarar Temple, Srikalahasti Temples are aligned Exactly in a straight line Positions.

All 3 temples are constructed at least 1000 years ago. No satellite technology was available at that time but very accurate placements. Truly an engineering, astrological and geographical wonder. Of the other two temples, Thiruvanaikkaval is located at around 3 degrees to the south and exactly 1 degree to the west of the northern tip of this divine axis, while Thiruvannamalai is around midway (1.5 degree to the south and 0.5 degree to the west).

The five grand temples associated with the five basic elements are:

Earth – (Prithivi) – Kanchipuram – Ekambareswarar Temple (12.847604, 79.699798)

Water – (Neer) – Thiruvanaikaval – Jambukeswara Temple (10.853383, 78.705455)

Fire – (Agni) – Tiruvannamalai – Annamalaiyar Temple (12.231942, 79.067694)

Wind – (Vayu) – Chitoor – Srikalahasti Temple (13.749802, 79.698410)

Sky – (Akasha) – Chidambaram – Chidambaram Nataraja Temple (11.399596, 79.693559)

A flickering lamp in the SriKalahasti temple shows the play of wind, the water spring in the innermost sanctum of the Tiruvanaikka temple shows the temple’s relationship to the element water, the annual Kartikai Deepam festival at Tiruvannamalai where a giant lamp is lighted atop the Annamalai hill shows the Annamalaiyaar’s manifestation as fire.

The swayambhu lingam of sand at Kanchipuram signifies the deitie’s association with the earth while the formless space at Chidambaram shows the association of the Supreme being with formlessness or nothingness.

Source: www.mysteryofindia.com

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The only problem that I have with people is that they lack the needed intensity. If they were intense enough, we would not have to work towards the ultimate for a lifetime – today, the work could be done.

The moment of death or the possibility of death is the most intense experience in most human beings’ lives. Most of them would have never touched that level of intensity throughout their lives. In their love, in their laughter, in their joy, in their ecstasy, in their misery – nowhere else do they touch that level of intensity – only in death.

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Because of that, Shiva went and sat in the cremation ground or kayanta, waiting. Kaya means “body,” anta means “ending.” Kayanta means “where the body ends” – not “where life ends.” It is a kayanta, not a jeevanta. All that you picked up on the planet, you have to leave behind. If you have lived in such a way that your body is all you know, then the moment when you have to shed it becomes the most intense moment of your life. If you know something beyond the body, it is not of great significance.

For one who has realized the nature of who he is and what he is, kayanta is not such a great moment. It is just one more moment, that’s all. But for those who lived just as a physical body, when the time to part with all that you know as yourself comes, it is going to be a very intense moment.

Immortality is a natural state for everybody. Mortality is a mistake that you have made. It is a wrong perception of life. As for the physical body, kayanta, the end of the body, will definitely come. But if instead of being just a kaya, you become a jeeva, if you are not just a living body but a living being, then immortality is a natural state for you. Whether you are mortal or immortal is only a question of perception – no existential change is needed.

That is why enlightenment is referred to as realization, not as an accomplishment or achievement. If you see it, it is there for you. If you do not see it, it is not there for you. It is only a question of perception – no fundamental, existential change.

If you are equipped, not with the senses, but with your pragna, then you know not only the kaya but the jeeva, and you are naturally immortal. You do not have to work towards your immortality. You just have to realize that this is the way it is.

So, Shiva shifted his residence to kayanta or smashan. Shma refers to shava or corpse, shan refers to shanya or bed. Where the dead bodies lie, that is where he resides, because he realized working with living people is a waste of time. You cannot get them to the pitch of intensity that is needed. You have to do so many tricks to make people a little intense.

Intensity does not arise because you have made the instinct of survival the biggest thing within you. There are two fundamental forces in this living body. One is the instinct of survival – another is the longing to expand limitlessly.

If you empower the instinct of survival, it always tries to play low, because survival means playing safe. If you empower the longing to become limitless, if you are seeking limitless expansion, if that is what all your energy is focused on, then there will be full intensity of life.

The instinct of survival is dominant in every other creature. With the phase of evolution where we have become human, a higher level of awareness and intelligence has entered into our lives – this is the time where the instinct of survival can be kept down and the longing to expand should be fired up.

Out of these two forces, one is always trying to fuel the intensity in you, the other is always trying to keep you at a simmer. You may have to save resources that are scarce, but life is not scarce.

Shiva sits at the smashan, bored with you and your play, bored because the whole drama all over town is absolutely stupid. The only real thing happens at the cremation ground. Maybe at the moment of birth and the moment of death, something is happening. Maternity homes and cremation grounds are the only two sensible places, though maternity is happening a little too much.

Shiva is sitting at a place where life makes utmost sense. But if you are fearful, if you are on survival or self-preservation mode, this will not make sense to you. Only if you are longing to expand and touch the ultimate, it will make sense to you. He is not interested in those who want to survive.

To survive, you just need four limbs and a few working brain cells. Whether they are earthworms, grasshoppers, or any other creature – they are all surviving, doing fine. That is all the brain you need to survive. So if you are in survival mode, if self-preservation is the most dominant thing in you, he is bored with you – he is waiting for you to die.

He is referred to as the destroyer not because he wants to destroy you. He is waiting at the cremation ground so that the body is destroyed, because until the body is destroyed, even people around do not realize what death is. You may have seen that when someone dear to them dies, people will fall all over the dead body, hug it, kiss it, try to bring it back to life – many things. But once you set fire to the body, no one ever goes and hugs the flames. Their instinct of self-preservation tells them this is not it.

This is not a question of right and wrong but of limited sense versus ultimate sense. Is it wrong to be limited? No. But it is painful to be limited. Is it wrong to be in pain? No. If you enjoy it, what is my problem? I am not against anything. The only thing that I do not like is if you want to go in one direction, but you are going in the opposite direction.

Senselessness is the only thing that I am against, because the essence of human life is that you have much more sense than any other creature – or you are supposed to, but a whole lot of people are trying to disprove that. Creation means intelligence. The Creator means ultimate intelligence. Unfortunately, a lot of people who are in all kinds of mess talk about God, and most people only talk about God when they are in a mess. If you have a nice, warm shower, you will sing a cinema song.

If we put you in the cold theerthakund – “Shiva! Shiva!” The moment there is difficulty, Shiva comes to your mind. When life is going the way you want it, you will think of all kinds of people and all kinds of things. If someone puts a gun to your head – “Shiva! Shiva!” He is the wrong guy to call. He is waiting at the cremation ground. If someone puts a gun to your head, and you call Shiva to save you – he will not.

Trying to turn it backward is the one thing that will not work with life. If you run forward, whichever direction you go, whatever you want to do – you sing, you dance, you meditate, you cry, you laugh – as long as it takes you towards a higher level of intensity, it will all work. If you try to roll it back, it does not work. Most human beings you do not have to poke with a dagger to make them miserable. If you simply leave them alone, they will become miserable.

Their instinct of self-preservation has crossed reasonable limits and is trying to curtail life and turn it backward. Sitting in the cremation ground, this is Shiva’s message: even if you die, it will work, but if you curtail life, it will not work. The question whether you curtail life or allow life to happen does not depend upon what you do and what you do not do, but upon how effervescent and how intense this life process is right now.

It is not a question of whether what you do is useful or not. If you can bring intensity into useless things, it will still work. But you need meaning for everything that you do. Unless it is meaningful, unless it is useful, you cannot throw yourself into it. In that context, meaningfulness and usefulness are important. Otherwise, meaningfulness and usefulness are essentially psychological. They are an inspiration, not an end in themselves.

Source: isha.sadhguru.org

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Namakkal is situated 52 kms south of Salem in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is surrounded by the Kollimallai Mountain Ranges and buzzes with devotees of Lord Narasimha and Bhakta Hanuman throughout the year.

As soon as one enters the city of Namakkal, one sees a beautiful mountain situated right in the heart of the city. This is the only mountain in this area and surprisingly unlike the other cities and towns in India; the whole city of Namakkal is built around this mountain.

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It actually makes you think how this mountain is right in the center of the city. Who put it there? Or what was the need to build the city around the mountain? The answer for that is a pastime which occurred towards the end of Treta-yuga.

Lakshmi Devi Desires to Have Darshana of Narasimha Avatara

During the Satya-yuga when Bhakta Prahlada was being tortured by his father Hiranyakashipu, Lord Vishnu had to rush immediately to save him. In urgency, He did not take Lakshmi Devi and Garuda along with Him. Hence Lakshmi Devi missed to witness the pastimes of Lord Narasimha.

She approached Lord Vishnu to fulfill Her desire of darshana of Narasimha Avatara. Hearing the request of Lakshmi Devi, Lord Vishnu told Her to visit Kamalalaya lake in this area and perform penances on the bank of the sacred Lake. He instructed Her to chant the mantra “Om Namo Narayana” while performing the penances.

Towards the end of the Treta-yuga, Hanuman had brought Sanjeevani Mountain to Srilanka in order to save the life of Lakshmana, the younger brother of Lord Ramachandra. After Lakshamana had regained His consciousness and was cured, Hanuman placed the Sanjeevani Mountain back in the Himalayas from where He had uprooted it. On the way back, he went to Gandaki River to bathe in its sacred waters.

There he found a shaligrama shila which he carried along on his way to Srilanka. When Hanuman was flying over this area, it was the time of performing the sandhya-vandana (daily prayers). Hence he stopped here. He came to the bank of Kamalalaya Lake and started looking for someone to keep shaligrama shila as this sacred shila could not be placed on the ground. He then spotted Mother Lakshmi and approached Her with his request of holding the shila till he performed his daily prayers.

In the meantime, the shaligrama shila started growing until it became heavier for Mother Lakshmi to hold. Unable to bear the weight, She kept the shila down and it grew into a huge mountain. When Hanuman returned he was amazed and surprised to see the huge mountain which was not present there earlier. Mother Lakshmi then narrated him the entire incident. She asked Hanuman to lift the shila as it would not be a great task for him since he had lifted Sanjeevani Mountain. Hanuman unleashed his tail and surrounded the shila with it but could not move it an inch. No matter how much he tried, he could not move the shila.

Suddenly there was a bright light atop the mountain. It was the effulgence emanating from the transcendental body of Lord Narasimha who had appeared to give darshana to Lakshmi Devi and Hanuman, fulfilling their desires. Since Mother Lakshmi chanted the holy names of the Lord near this hill, He named this hill as Namagiri. ‘Nama’ means Lord’s holy name and ‘giri’ means the hill. Later this place came to be known as Namakkal.

In Tamil language ‘kal’ means stone. Lord Narasimha blessed Lakshmi Devi and gave Her the name as Namagiri Thayar or Namakirti Thayar. Today also the devotees of Lord Narasimha first have darshana of Namagiri Thayar and then go for the darshana of Lord Narasimha.

Lord Narasimha asked Hanuman to return to Srilanka, assist Lord Ramachandra in His pastimes and then return to worship Him at Namakkal and also receive the worship of devotees.

The Cave Temples at Namakkal

There are three main temples in Namakkal – Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Temple, Sri Ranganathar Temple and Sri Anjaneyar Temple. It is believed that these temples were originally built by the Aadhiyamans in the 7th century and were later improved by the Pallavas and Madurai Nayakas in 13th century. These temples are beautifully decorated with mantaps of intricately carved pillars. Atop Namagiri Mountain is the Namakkal fort.

Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Temple

Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Temple is right at the foot hill of Namagiri on its western side. The same temple complex houses three temples. In the center is the temple of Lord Narasimha, on its left is the temple of Namagiri Thayar and on the right is Sri Lakshmi Narayana temple. Thayar is facing east towards Lord Narasimha to have His darshana always. She is sitting on a lotus flower holding lotus in Her beautiful hands. It is believed that anyone who worships Namagiri Thayar becomes expert in Mathematics.

In the temple of Lord Narasimha, on the altar is Lord Narasimha sitting in Veerasana. His palm is stained with the blood of Hiranyakashipu. He has sharp nails which He used to kill Hiranyakashipu and He holds Sudarshana and Panchajanya in His upper two hands. He also has a danda to punish the sinful persons. Behind Him are Sanaka, Sanandana and the Sun-good and the Moon-god holding chamaras fanning the Lord. On the right side of Lord Narasimha is Lord Shiva and on His left side is Lord Brahma offering Him prayers.

Hence this place is also called as Trimurti Sthalam. In the altar, on the surrounding walls, one can also have darshana of Sri Vaikuntha Narayana, Sri Ugra Narasimha, Sri Varaha and Sri Vamana. Amusingly there is no gopura atop this temple since the Lord is in the cave and the gopura could not be constructed for such a huge shaligrama mountain.

Sri Anjaneyar Temple

250’ opposite to the temple of Sri Lakshmi Narasimha is the temple of Sri Anjaneyar. One has to walk a colorful fleet market while approaching this temple. The Deity of Hanuman is 18 feet tall and His vision is always falling at the lotus feet of Lord Narasimha through a hole in the Garuda’s gopura opposite to Lord Narasimha’s temple. Do not miss this when you visit the temple.

It is a wonderful sight to remind us to keep our vision always at the lotus feet of the Lord. Sri Anjaneyar stands in open sky without roof above his head. This is because a roof cannot be constructed over Lord Narasimha, Bhakta Hanuman also doesn’t want a roof over him. Many kings have tried to construct the roof above Anjaneyar but they have failed.

Bhakta Hanuman served Lord Ramachandra in various capacities like a servant, like a politician, like a soldier, etc. Hence Hanuman here is holding a japa mala in his hands and a sword is tied to his waist. He is also dressed royally with a crown and kavacha on his body. Sri Anjaneyar is the protector of Namakkal Dham. If one performs the vada mala seva to Sri Hanuman, one is relieved of the ill effects of Shani and Rahu planets.

Sri Ranganatha Temple

Right behind Sri Lakshmi Narasimha temple is Sri Ranganatha Temple on the other side of Namagiri. A flight of hundred stairs has to be climbed to access the temple. Lord Ranganatha is lying in the Karkodaya Shayana posture. He is resting on Karkodaka Snake. Karkodaka was a king of snakes. He performed penances in order to please Lord to rest on his coils and hence the Lord blessed him with his desire. The face of the snake is like a fierce roaring lion. Lord Ranganatha is holding the chakra, conch, bow, arrow, mace and a sword.

Festivals at Namakkal

Amongst the various grand festivals celebrated in Namakkal, the main festivals are: Dusshera, which is celebrated for 10 days for the Thayar and Ratha Yatra on the Panguni Hastam which is celebrated for 15 days. Hanuman Jayanti is another very grand festival which is celebrated during the new moon of Markali month (Dec-Jan).

How to Reach

Namakkal is well connected by Railways from major cities in South India like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, etc. The nearest bigger railway station is Salem. One can also reach Salem and then catch a bus to Namakkal. The nearest airport is Salem. There are pretty good accommodation facilities in Namakkal.

Source: www.tirthayatra.org

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Before one views the Sanctum Sanctorum, one has to climb over eighteen sacred steps. These steps are now covered with `Panchaloham’ ( A Special Composition of gold, silver, copper, iron and tin ). Pilgrims initiate their ascent up the Pathinettam Padi by placing their right foot on the first step.

The symbolism of these 18 steps is as follows:-

The first five steps symbolise the five human senses (Panchendriyas).

1. Visual (Eye)
2. Auditory (Ears)and
3. Olfactory (Nose)
4. Gustatory (Tongue)
5. Tactile (Skin)

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The next eight steps symbolise the eight Ashtaragas.

6. Kama (Love)
7. Krodha (Anger)
8. Lobha (Avarice)
9. Moha (Lust)
10. Madha (Pride)
11. Maltsarya (Unhealthy Competition)
12. Asooya (Jealous)
13. Dhumb (Boastfulness)

The next three steps stand for three Gunas or Thrigunas (Nature-born qualities).

14. Satva (Perspicuity, Discernment)
15. Rajas (Activity, Enjoyment)
16. Thamas (Inactivity, Stupor)
The last two steps represent:
17. Vidya (Knowledge)
18. Avidya (Ignorance)

18 Steps are also equated to

18 Puranas
18 Mountains
18 Ayudhams
18 Siddhas
18 Devatas
18 Gunas

“Padi Pathinettum Puranangal Aakkiya Premaswaroopandae Ananda Mandapam.” says an old sharana vili. There are 18 mountains surrounding Sabarimalai and each one is represented through one step of the padhinettu padi.

Ayyappan has 18 Ayudhams. he left each one of the ayudham while ascending the peetam and hence each step has or represents an aydham of Ayyappan. Weapons which kills (the enemies) and at the same time protect (the devotees)

All our Shastras greatly exclaim about the 18 siddha purushas. These siddha purushas have surrendered to Lord Sastha who is the Yogeeshwara and obtained the status or privilege of being his Ashtadasha Peetam(18 Steps)

18 Special Devatas are installed in the 18 steps. During the customary Padi Pooja – these dieties are worshipped.

There are eighteen devatas who are the adhishtana moorthis of 18 mountain ranges(or Parivara devats) who are installed in the 18 steps and Sastha was seated above all ( Here the steps are not built. but it is done as a pratishta. that is the most important thing and uniqueness of Sabarimalai ).

When Ayyappa avatara took place he renounced his prince hood and left his ayudhams one by one on each of the step of Pathinettampadi and merged with Sastha

Further 18 siddha purushas who wanted to serve the Lord, installed their divine presence in the 18 steps to serve him as well as bless the devotees.

Just imagine, the Swami is same everywhere. at Achankovil, Aryankavu or Kulathupuzhai, Coimbatore or Banglore. But the 18 steps are unique here. You can see the Lord even without the vrutham. But you cannot step the Padinettampadi without Vrutham. Thats its speciality.

Because By climbing the steps – You are actually stepping the zone of a Particular devata who guards it. and only if you have the Vrutha Balam – you qualify – “you pass the exam” – you are blessed.

(These devatas are worshipped during the Padi Pooja – this detail is not known or not revealed to many. I can humbly claim that I am blessed to have the actual process and the actual list of devatas of all the 18 steps along with their dhyanam – moola mantram and everything)

Every divine aspect has a direct side and an esoteric meaning. For Example Rama’s war with with Ravana to unite with Seetha – is not a mere story but the aikyam of Jeevathma and Paramatma

Similarly the 18 steps has an esoteric meaning. that one who conquers the 18 Gunas becomes Bhagawan. thats Thathvamasi.

Each year you follow the Vrutham to 100% sincerity, you climb one step or rise one level in your spiritual progress. the inner refinement happens. (that is the actual purpose of Sabarimalai yatra. if this is not happening. there is no use even if you go 1008 times)

Similarly when you overcome the 18 gunas. you become pure and attain the state of oneness with the Lord – the state is called Thathvamasi.

Thathvamasi is a Maha Vakyam from the Vedas meaning – “You know that you and that are One”..

Unfortunately, we have neither understood the direct meaning nor the esoteric meaning. Let that evercompassionate Lord bless us with the Gnana and Bhakti and the inner drive to understand His significance.

Hariharaputram Sadhaa Bajeham Maaya Kaaryam Thyejeham

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Arjuna’s Penance is a massive open-air bas-relief monolith, which dates back to the 7th century. It is situated in the town of Mahabalipuram, at a distance of 58 km from Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu.

Standing tall at a height of 43 feet, the Mamallapuram monolith was carved on the face of two huge adjoining boulders, somewhere around the mid-7th century. The length of Arjuna’s Penance is around 96 feet and the monolith is also known by the name of ‘The Descent of Ganga’.

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Arjuna’s Penance is known by two names as experts disagree on the stories depicted by it. As per one view, the massive rock sculpture has been named after one of the heroes of the great Indian Epic, Mahabharata. It is believed to illustrate an instance from Mahabharata when Arjuna, one of the Pandavas, performed rigorous austerities to get Shiva’s weapon and destroy his enemies. The second view is that Arjuna’s Penance is a depiction of the incident when King Bhagiratha of India did penance to bring the River Ganges down, from heaven to earth, so as to purify the souls of his ancestors.

Lord Shiva answered his prayers and sent the Ganges down to earth. However, the lord decided to break her fall to earth so as to lessen the impact, by allowing the water to trickle through His hair. It is said that the animals of the whole world became curious of the incident and gathered around the soaking God to witness it. The carvings done on the massive monolith support both the stories. Apart from these incidents, the carvings also depict popular fables from the Hindu Panchatantra books.

The liveliness and naturalism of the sculpted figures stand as proofs of the outstanding skill of their sculptors. Arjuna’s Penance showcases more than 100 figures of gods and flying celestial creatures, birds and animals, including giant elephants, along with human beings and saints. A natural cleft between the two rocks separates the monolith into two separate halves. It is this cleft that is believed to represent the descent of the Ganges to earth.

The figures of animals and celestial beings carved on Arjuna Penance are shown either facing this cleft or approaching it and generally have their hands folded in adoration. Filling the cleft is a slab, which has been sculpted with male and female nagas (snakes). The hands of the nagas are held together in adoration and an artificial waterfall, fed from a collecting chamber sited above, is located just over it. There is a four-armed deity, probably Lord Shiva, to the left side of the cleft.

The deity is shown holding a weapon in His right hand and His left hand is in the gesture of granting a blessing. Dwarf ganas (guards and followers of Lord Shiva) have also been shown along with the deity. To the right of the deity and a little below, one can see Arjuna, or Bhagiratha, standing on one leg, in a yoga posture with arms upraised, seeking the blessing of the lord. Underneath this figure, one can see a carved shrine of Lord Vishnu, which has sages, a buck and his doe and a lion seated in the front, along with a few disciples engaged in austerities.

To the left of the shrine are some caves, in which a few animals are shown resting. Apart from these carvings, the lower left portion of the boulder is left largely uncarved. The Upper left portion of the boulder has carvings that depict a mountain, probably Lord Shiva’s abode in the Himalayas, where the figures of gods and animals have been blended together. On the right-hand side of the cleft i.e., on the other boulder, numerous celestial beings and animals have been carved.

Of these carvings, the most impressive ones are those that show life-sized elephants protecting their young ones. Just below the elephants are illustrated scenes from the Panchatantra fables, like the story of the cat trying to trick the rats by enacting the posture of penance. Just to the right of these carvings, one can see a low platform, where a group of monkeys have been carved and are seen preening one another and at the same time, playing with and nursing a baby.

The group of monuments at Mahabalipuram has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Source: www.iloveindia.com

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The island of Elephanta, the glorious abode of Lord Shiva and an epitome of Hindu cave culture, consists of seven caves on an island in the Sea of Oman close to Mumbai which, with their decorated temples and the images from Hinduism, bear a unique testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.

Here, Indian art has found one of its most perfect expressions, particularly in the huge high reliefs in the main cave. The island of Gharapuri, the ‘City of Caves’, situated about 10 km from Mumbai on the east side of the harbour, owes its name to the enormous stone elephant found there by Portuguese navigators. This elephant was cut into pieces, removed to Mumbai and somehow put together again. It is today the melancholy guardian of Victoria Gardens Zoo in Mumbai, the great metropolis of Maharashtra State and India’s second city population-wise.

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The date of the famous Elephanta Caves is still very much debated and varies from the 6th century to the 8th century according to different specialists. They constitute one of the most striking collections of rock-art in India. There are two groups of caves. To the east, Stupa Hill (thus named because of a small brick Buddhist monument at the top) contains two caves, one of which is unfinished, and several cisterns.

To the west, the larger group consists of five rock-cut Hindu shrines. The main cave is universally famous for its carvings to the glory of Shiva, who is exalted in various forms and act ions. The cave consists of a square plan mandapa whose sides measure about 27 m.

The interior is divided up into smaller areas by rows of supports. The whole shape carefully imitates a building; false profiled beams have been carved in the roof of the cave and the supports, which are complex structures, combine, from bottom to top, the shapes of the pillars, columns and capitals found in bonded stone architecture.

At the very entrance to the cave, to the north of an esplanade reached by a steep flight of steps, the pilgrim or visitor to this high place of Shivaism is greeted by two large carved panels depicting, on the left, Shiva Yogisvara (Master of Yoga) and, on the right, Shiva Nataraja (King of Dance), both treated in a monumental style still close to that of the Gupta period. In a chapel on the right of the entrance stands the cylindrical lingam, symbol of the Supreme Being and principle of all energy.

This chapel has four doors, each flanked by colossal figures of dvarapala, those mediator guardians whose task was to admit the faithful and keep out ill-intentioned visitors. On each wall of the mandapa, enormous high-reliefs (maximum height 5.70 m) present further pictures of Shiva.

Opposite the entrance, on the south wall, is the famous and unforgettable three-headed bust of the Mahadeva, whose three faces are the incarnation of three essential functions; to the east, Aghora or Bhairava, terrifying destroyer; to the west, Vamadeva, creator of joy and beauty, incarnated by a woman’s head; and in the centre, Tatpurusha, master of positive and negative principles of existence and preserver of their harmony.

On either side of this central figure there are two other reliefs depicting, on the left, androgynous Shiva (Ardhanarisvara) and, on the right, Shiva receiving the waters of the Ganges (Gangadhara). Ten other reliefs, placed in each angle of the main hall and in the aisles to the east and west, depict further episodes from the legend of Shiva, such as the marriage of Shiva to Parvati, Shiva killing the devil Andhaka, etc. The 15 large reliefs surrounding the lingam chapel in the main Elephanta Cave not only constitute one of the greatest examples of Indian art but also one of the most important collections for the cult of Shiva.

Integrity

All the archaeological components in the Elephanta Caves are preserved in their natural settings. There is further scope to reveal archaeological material and enhance information by exposing the buried stupas. At the time of the listing the need was noted to safeguard the fragile site from nearby industrial development. Currently, saline activity and general deterioration of rock surface are affecting the caves. Management of the property would be enhanced through the adoption of a Conservation Management Plan to guide restoration and conservation works.

Authenticity

The authenticity of the property has been well maintained since its inscription on the World Heritage List, despite certain repairs on the façade and pillars that have been carried out to ensure the structural stability of the monument. Besides the caves, Elephanta Island possesses archaeological remains from as early as the 2nd century BC and from the Portuguese period, as witnessed, respectively, by stupas buried towards the eastern side of the hillock and a canon located at its top. Moreover, the caves are preserved in the form of monolithic temples, sarvatobhadra garbhgriha(sanctum), mandapa (courtyard), rock-cut architecture, and sculptures. Since inscription, a number of interventions have been made to enhance visitors’ experience and to conserve the site.

These include the construction of pathways, conservation of fallen and broken pillars, conservation of fallen and collapsed facades, construction of flight of steps leading to the caves from island’s jetty, repair to the Custodian’s Quarters, and setting up of a Site Information Centre.

Management and protection requirements

The property is protected primarily by the Archaeological Survey of India, which also undertakes the management of the Elephanta Caves with the assistance of other departments, including the Forest Department, Tourism Department, MMRDA, Urban Development Department, Town Planning Department, and the Gram panchayat of the Government of Maharashtra, all acting under the various legislations of the respective departments, such as the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (1958) and Rules (1959); Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act (2010); Indian Forest Act (1927), Forest Conservation Act (1980); Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships Act, Maharashtra (1965); and Regional and Town Planning Act, Maharashtra (1966).

Sustaining the Outstanding Universal Value of the property over time will require completing, approving and implementing a Conservation Management Plan to guide restoration and conservation works; addressing saline activity and the general deterioration of the caves’ rock surfaces using internationally recognised scientific standards and techniques; safeguarding the property from nearby industrial development; and considering exposing the buried stupas.

The restoration of some of the pillars that was carried out in 1960s needs to be dismantled and redone as cracks have developed. Additional resources (technical specialist advice) and funding are required to conserve this site and protect the archaeology.

Sohttp://whc.unesco.orgurce: whc.unesco.org

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Pilgrimages have been an essential part of the spiritual quest since time immemorial. Sadhguru looks at the significance and purpose behind going on a pilgrimage.

What is the difference between travel, a journey and a pilgrimage? People move from one place to another for a variety of reasons. There are explorers who are always looking for virgin land that they want to put their footprint on. They want to prove something. There are travelers who are curious to see everything, so they travel. There are tourists who just go to relax.

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There are other kinds of tourists who just go to escape from their work or family. But a pilgrim is not going for any of these purposes. A pilgrimage is not a conquest, it is a surrender.

It is a way of getting yourself out of the way. If you do not budge, it is a way of wearing yourself out. A process of destroying all that is limited and compulsive and arriving to a boundless state of consciousness.

Subduing Who You Are

The very idea behind a pilgrimage is fundamentally to subdue the sense of who you are. It is to become nothing in the process of just walking and climbing and subjecting yourself to various arduous processes of nature.

In the ancient past, to get to such places, a person had to go through a certain amount of physical, mental, and every kind of hardship, so that he becomes less than who he thinks he is right now. Today things have been made much more comfortable. We are flying up, driving down and just walking a little bit.

Physically, we are much weaker human beings than what they used to be a thousand years ago because somewhere we do not know how to make use of the comforts and conveniences for our wellbeing. We have used them to make ourselves weaker, at more difficulty with ourselves and with the surroundings in which we exist. So the fundamental idea of pilgrimage becomes all the more relevant to modern societies than it was to the ancient ones.

Hardship is not necessary but most people are unwilling to dissolve, so you have to wear them down. It is unfortunate that most human beings cannot grow in comfort. It would be wonderful to grow in comfort but unfortunately, most human beings become frivolous when there is comfort.

Some profoundness comes to them only when there is hardship. But it need not be so. Something else need not beat us down. We must have the sense to understand that if we want to experience something larger than ourselves and touch dimensions which are not yet in our perception, the most important thing is that the sense of who you are should go down.

Make Your Life a Pilgrimage

If you have a working head, you would make your life into a pilgrimage. If your life is not a constant process of reaching for something higher than where you are right now, what kind of life is that? If this life is not constantly longing for something higher than what it is, that is not much of a life. If you are aspiring and working towards something higher, then your life is a pilgrimage.

Source: isha.sadhguru.org

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Bermuda Triangle or the Devil’s Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean, where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Even though the US Navy says that Bermuda Triangle does not exist, many have attributed various disappearances to the paranormal or activity by extraterrestrial beings. But till date, nobody could find out actual reason behind this mystery.

Many believe that there is a hidden pyramid inside the atlantic ocean, which pulls everything towards it like a magnet. It was named as “danger region” for about 500 years after disappearance of ships & planes. In 1492 during journey to America, Columbus saw some glitterness in this region and his magnetic compass got disturbed.

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Bermuda Triangle Mystery Revealed in Rig Veda

Although there is a similar demon described in first ever poem, Ramayana, it does not match with the geographical location.Simhika, the gigantic demon had the power to attract anything’s shadow flying over ocean and pull it into the waters.

However, that was on the way to Lanka. Brahmanda Purana (composed more than 5000 years ago) and Rig Veda (written more than 23000 years ago) clearly state that the planet Mars was born our of Earth. That is why he is called as Bhauma (‘son of Bhumi’) or Kuja (Ku = Earth + Ja = Born out of ) in Sanskrit.

Asya Vamasya Sukta in Rig Veda states :”When Earth gave birth to Mars, and Mars seperated from his mother, her thigh got injured and she became imbalanced (Earth rotated in its axis) and to stop it Godly doctors, Aswini Kumars poured iron into the triangular shaped injury and Earth got fixed in her current position.

That is why Earth’s axis is bent at a particular angle. That triangular shaped injury on our planet which was filled with iron went onto become Bermuda Triangle. Iron stored inside earth for years becomes natural magnet and Bermuda disappearances, fog, high and low temperature water streams colliding are a result of this.

Moon was also born out of churning of milky ocean and when it rocketed out from Earth at latitude of about 23½ a huge bump created by its ejection came in line with Sun. So, Earth has tilted axis at 23½. Modern science could not explain this phenomenon and also the strange coincidence that Earth is titled at 23½ degress and Bermuda Triangle is also at 23½ !

In 1909, a fishing boat got disappeared. On 5th Dec 1945, a flight started from Florida (USA), when went about 120 miles east, its contact was broken from base station and plane disappeared.

In 1948, a ship carrying 27 travelers disappeared in Bermuda region. In 1951, another ship carrying 53 travelers disappearedin this region. Due to safety and precautionary reasons, all routes for ships & planes have been made out of this triangle.

Bermuda Triangle Mystery Revealed in Atharva Veda

Atharva Veda has description of several gems. One of them is Darbha gem, which is described in Sukta 28, 29 & 30, by Darbha gem. So, electro-magnetic waves going from wireless system or coming to system are disturbed and wireless system fails.

Darbha gem is like a very short form of neutron star, which has high density. Similarly, Darbha gem also has high density so there is high gravitation due to Darbha gem. There is emission of high energetic electro-magnetic waves due to Darbha gem, probably due to nuclear reactions happening in it. Intensities of electric & magnetic field associated with electro-magnetic waves are very high.

This gem could be a powerful and dangerous weapon. Khanda 19 of Atharva Veda, Mantra 4 of Sukta 28, states : “As the Sun brings down clouds on earth in the same way oh! Darbha gem you fall down the rising enemies.” It means that there is gravitational force due to Darbha gem inside water. Mantra 5 of Sukta 29, says, “As the curd is stirred in the same way oh! Darbha gem you stir enemies.” It means to stir the bodies is a property of Darbha gem. In Mantra 7 of Sukta 29, says, “to burn the bodies”;

It means there is emission of high energetic rays like laser rays by Darbha gem, which destroy bodies. So properties of Darbha gem are:

1) High gravitational field.
2) Stir bodies coming near to it.
3) Emission of high energetic rays.

All these properties of Darbha gem, explain the phenomena of Bermuda Triangle. Mars (Mangala / Kuja) has Triangle shaped Yantra in Vedic Astrology. In Vedic Astrology, Mars (Mangala or Kuja) is red in color (similar to what moden scientists discovered), had water bodies on it (dried river beds found by NASA).

Coral, the gemstone related to Mars is also red in color and found only under sea waters.

What is even more astonishing is that, Yantra is Mars is triangle (tilted) shaped. In that way, Mars is brother of all humans born on planet Earth. Mars also controls all land related issues in human lives like Real Estate Business, Agriculture, Siblings etc in astrology.

Modern scientists assume presence of methane hydrates, which indicates enormous eruptions of methane bubbles that would swamp a ship, and projected high into the air- take out flying airplanes, as well. Any ship caught within the methane mega-bubble immediately lose all buoyancy and sink to the bottom of the ocean. If the bubbles are big enough and possess a high enough density they can also knock aircraft out of the sky with little or no warning.

Aircraft falling victim to these methane bubbles will lose their engines-perhaps igniting the methane surrounding them-and immediately lose their lift as well, ending their flights by diving into the ocean and swiftly plummeting.

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The last thing people would like to discuss or even think is ‘Death’. But they often don’t last till last to discuss or even think about what really death is! Man has made so much innovation in technology that with little remote control he can control satellites from thousands of miles away. Or he can put so much complexity into a small electronic chip to work wonders. But death challenges all human advancements.

It is an affront to the genius of modern human. Nobody wants to die but everybody has to die. It is beyond their control. So much research has gone into eliminating death but the wonder is no body has escaped cruel death till now even the researchers. The death rate is same everywhere i.e. 100%.

In my childhood I used to deliberate so much on death. The more I used to deliberate the more I used to get befuddled as there seemed no solution for this enigma. I used to cry at night thinking that one day I have to leave my beloved ones. How can I never be separated from them was my relentless anxiety. I used to ponder when we come in this world there are attachments growing around us. Attachment for mother, father, friends, etc. gives us boost to struggle in this world. Without attachments rarely one can survive. But the paradox is at the time of death all attachments are abruptly severed. How ghastly! How Painful! Death means end of everything. Death means perpetual separation from loved ones, never to meet again, ever! How horrifying is the idea! Just as some dry leaves on river surface come together and with a surge of wave are separated for ever. Thinking thus I would cry whole night.

One who thinks profoundly about death cannot afford to bear attachments for anyone and anything in this world. But people don’t want to think about death rather they want to forget it so that they can cultivate attachments for their loved ones which is source of pleasure for them. Just like when we are ailing we know something is erroneous with the body and we take medication. In this world we can’t live without attachments but death severs those very same attachments brusquely and makes us suffer bitterly. Hence we can conclude that we are at wrong place. This world is not meant for gentlemen/women.

Once when Pandavas, great devotees of Lord were in exile they were extremely thirsty while nomadic in the forest. Yudhistir asked his brothers to search some lake nearby. When after long time they didn’t return he himself went in search of them. No sooner he found them near a lake in unconscious state than a supernatural voice resonated,

“Your brothers didn’t care to answer my questions before drinking water from my lake hence their current state. If you too don’t answer you will follow them.”

Yudhistir nodded solemnly.

One of the many questions asked by the supernatural voice was “What is most astonishing thing in this world?”

Yudhistir impeccably replied “One sees death everywhere around but he thinks he is an exception. This is most astonishing.”

Later after perfectly answering all other questions the brothers were resurrected back.

So the most astounding thing in the world is not the 7 wonders of the world, but the attitude that I will never die inspite of seeing death around. Everyone who dies thinks like that. Nobody likes to die.

In the Light of Scriptures

While voyaging throughout 84 lacks species of life every time we encountered death. We were in species of dog, ant, tree, snake, fish, tiger, elephant, eagle, demigod, pigeon, spider, scorpion, lion, whale, shark, bacteria…… It is thrilling!? But surely not fun. Every animal species is filled with immense angst for survival. Even the kings of jungle have to famish for weeks to catch their prey. It’s not a tranquil life.

If we deliberate deeply we can observe that for every kind of desire we have, there is facility in nature. If someone desires to fly freely in the air there is bird’s body, someone desires to swim there is aquatic body, someone desires to eat a lot there is elephant body, someone desires excess sex is given pigeon body, someone desires to sleep a lot there is polar bear body, someone likes to be naked there is tree body, someone desires to eat flesh there is tiger body and so forth. God has provided facility for accomplishing every kind of desire. You just think of it and it is there in nature. Of course we need to deserve before we desire. Now the desire for living eternal is there in everyone without exception. Nobody wants to die. So is there any facility for that in nature? Yes of course! Hence the quest for supernatural is natural. Many movies are also made portraying such a supernatural place where one doesn’t die and can live eternally happy. It is described in Bhagavad Gita 15.6

na tad bhasayate suryo na sasanko na pavakah yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama

That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world.

Death for Transcendentalists

It is explained in vedic texts that we are not the body but spirit soul. And the body has death not the soul. So actually we don’t die rather the body does at the time of death. Good news! How relieving it is. Soul is indestructible while the body is destructible. Soul is driving force for the body. A transcendentalists understands this fact and goes further to know the source of the soul. The original home of the soul is the kingdom of God. Somehow the soul has landed in this foreign land and is suffering like an orphan. Hence the duty of the living entity is to go back to his original home where there is eternity, bliss and complete knowledge in association of God

It is explained that just like a cat when she hunts for rat her teeth appears like death knell to rat but for a kitten same teeth are loving embrace of mother. When death appears a materialists feels petrified. But for a transcendentalists death is God’s loving embrace, a call back home.

When two prisoners are escorted out of a jail into a van it may seem both are heading to same destination. But one is released completely from the jail because of his good bearing while the other is confined to rigorous imprisonment on account of his impish conduct. So death is same for materialists and transcendentalist but what happens after death is imperative.

So a transcendentalists practices bhakti yoga. Bhakti yoga is more powerful than death. Even death cannot check progress on this path. Best way of practicing it is by chanting God’s names

HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

One who practices sincerely and seriously will surely at time of death acquire a spiritual body which is absolutely free of any deficiency. So death is a time to change body from an inferior one to superior one. Hence for a transcendentalists death is time to revel!

Conclusion

Finally my crying for my loved ones came to an end. I understood if we perform Bhakti yoga and achieve perfection then we all can meet again in spiritual world never to be separated again. Srila Prabhupada, founder Acharya of ISKCON once said, “When we go back to spiritual world we will have another ISKCON there!” Path of Bhakti yoga is best welfare activity for the family members and all. Even if one performs bhakti yoga alone he can deliver his beloved ones. In the holy pages of Srimad Bhagavatam 4th canto the story of Dhruva Maharaj appears where his mother guided him to practice Yoga in forest to achieve Lord. At the culmination when Dhruva achieved perfection and was about to leave for spiritual world he asked his beloved mother also to be taken along although she didn’t practice yoga herself. So if I practice seriously enough and when time comes for soaring back to spiritual world I shall take my beloved ones along. Then we shall live happily ever after together with God in the kingdom of God!!! “Happily ever after”

The post Art of Living is to Master the Art of Dying appeared first on IndiaDivine.org.

Have you ever heard of terminal restlessness? Probably not, unless you are a doctor or a nurse. But although the name is new, the condition is described in Srimad Bhagavatam.

Srila Prabhupada says: “And similarly, miserable condition of death. When one is lying in coma, so many sufferings is going on, so many dreaming, the Yamaduta is coming. Sometimes the man on the deathbed cries, he’s so much suffering but there is no remedy. Everyone is helpless. So that is the miserable condition of death…” Srila Prabhupad, Gorakhpur Feb 18, 1971

I will tell you how I found out about it, and this story is a classic example of the dreadful reality faced by all the suffering souls of this material world. It also shows clearly what Srila Prabhupad has saved us from and why we should feel eternally indebted to him.

Request for Help for Chennai Flood Relief

It all started when I received a phone call from my parents saying that Dad was sick with cancer. I believe in omens, and my right eye started twitching profusely, so I knew that the outcome wouldn’t be good. That was in the beginning of November.

But Dad was optimistic. He was sure he could overcome everything, as he had always been the controller in every situation and had faced many trials in life and overcome them all. Until now he seemed to be a lucky guy, enjoying good facilities and good karma in every respect. Little did he know that his good karma had come to a grinding halt. If Krsna wants to save you no one can kill you, but if Krsna wants to kill you no one can save you.

Dad had prostate cancer, and it had spread into his bones. He was having chemotherapy, but it failed twice. I rang one day, and he literally wept. “I’m dying,” he said.

I felt compassion for him. He was helpless in the hands of cruel fate. I tried to help. “Well don’t worry,” I said. “There is reincarnation. You will be okay. Just pray. God is kind.”

But it was little comfort to someone who was bewildered and didn’t know God.

After that I felt that I was somehow connected to his suffering. I could feel all of his fear and anxiety. I would pray all the time. I didn’t want to experience any of it, but I guess I was karmically connected to him, so there was no escape no matter how far away I was. The physical suffering was nothing compared to the mental torture he was experiencing. He became humble, and I dropped everything a couple of times and flew from Vrindavan to be with him.

In the past he had never wanted to hear anything about Krishna, so I had given up trying years ago. We never discussed the subject. I would just feed him prasad (he loved my cooking) and talk about other things. I had Vrindavan dust with me and some Yamuna water mixed with Ganga. There were also some small Jagannatha Deities. I deposited all these things in the house, hoping they would have an effect and using them whenever possible, in Dad’s food and so on.

I kept praying and hoping that somehow I could convince him about Krishna before he died. He was so bewildered and humbled by his lack of control over the situation that he was willing to listen to some degree. He was clutching at straws.

I read him some Bhagavad Gita, and he said that it was comforting. I also read to him from Coming Back. He liked that because the idea of reincarnation was something positive to look for in the future, and he was desperate for that. I saw in there the chapter about Ajamila and felt I should read it to him, but thought maybe it was too much to thrust upon him. Besides, I was there, and because I was chanting everything it would be okay, or so I thought.

I really believed you could just chant Hare Krishna and all bad things would go away. I guess this is a superficial and neophyte viewpoint. The material world is such a heavy place, and with my great ego I, was overestimating my own purity. I realized later that I’m really not even a devotee. If you are incapable of saving yourself, how can you possibly save anyone else?

I had to fly back to Vrindavan several times, as I had family and business commitments, but the whole time I could feel him pulling me. I had zero mental peace during this time. I think he really wanted me there and was emotionally dependant on me, as I was the only one offering any tangible solutions.

People are basically not sympathetic either, and he needed a lot of understanding. I am not good at handling suffering, so this was difficult to bear seeing someone you care for suffering so much anxiety. I left my Jagannatha Deities there and asked them to forgive any offense but to please protect my father while I went back to India on business just for a couple of weeks.

Then my mother rang. She was at her wits’ end. “Please come,” she said. “He is in hospital now, and we need you here.” I jumped on the first flight, and as soon as I arrived, I moved into the hospital with Dad. It was incredible how Krishna seemed to arrange it. They gave us a private room and let me sleep there and care for him. Nobody questioned my authority, and my mother just backed off and let me do anything. She is a Roman Catholic and doesn’t usually allow me to speak about Krishna.

I realized that the karmis are so far into denial that they try to avoid the reality of death as much as possible, so it was a way out for her if I took the burden. She could go home and pretend nothing was happening, yet still know that Dad was being taken care of by me. Or maybe deep down she also felt desperate for his spiritual welfare, and I was the best solution they had. I’m not really sure. Once it all goes beyond their material perception and control, they become completely bewildered. I only know that I was able to fully take over the care of my father. Many people must suffer and die alone in hospitals going through what I am about to tell…

I slept next to Dad and tended to his every need. I managed to get Tulasi beads on him, which one demoniac nurse kept taking off. I got mental about it. Oh no, I thought, he is so sinful, he can’t wear Tulasi. Then I just got in this mindset that I was going to be aggressive and keep those beads on him no matter what. She would take them off, and I would just smile sweetly and put them right back on.

I read some Bhagavad Gita to him. He didn’t eat at all for the twelve days leading up to his death. For eight of those days he had only Ganga and Yamuna water and nothing else. I controlled everything that went into his mouth. I even started sprinkling Vrindavan dust in his water as well.

Toward the end, he was on another level, not of this world. He seemed to be perceiving things that other people couldn’t. For example, every night I would put on a Shiva T-Shirt to wear to bed. There was a large picture of Lord Shiva on the front of it. My habit was to wait till he was asleep and in a subtle manner, sprinkle a little bit of Vrindavan dust on his head in case he died while I was asleep.

One night I had just sprinkled the dust, and he sprang up with a wide-eyed look of amazement. “Oh, you’re all surrounded by dust,” he said.

Another night, in the same way, he sprang awake and looked at my Lord Shiva shirt. “Careful!” he said. “There’s fire coming out of your shirt.” The day before he died, he said there were big dogs in the room and an ugly person floating outside the window.

The evening before his death he began to feel disturbed. “Untie my legs,” he was saying to I don’t know whom, and he was visibly distressed. My mother and my daughter decided to stay overnight at the hospital, which they didn’t normally do. I drifted off to sleep and so did Mum.

At about 9.30 pm my daughter woke me up. “Mum,” she said, “come quickly! Something’s happening to Grand-dad.”

I raced over to the bed and Dad was moaning. “Please, please,” he was saying, “I beg you, let me loose, please let me loose.” His tone was humble and terrified, and his eyes were lowered. He was to say these words many, many times over the next six hours. He was trying to jump off the bed and hide under his pillow. You have to understand that he was skin and bones. He couldn’t even urinate without help, and here he was suddenly trying to get up and run off.

He was thrashing around like a mad man. This is really inauspicious, I thought. I grabbed him by the shoulders. “Dad,” I said, “what’s happening? You okay?”

He was terrified. “Oh Sue,” he cried out, “I tried to get away, I really did, but they got me.” His voice went up to a shout. “She’s got me!” he yelled out.

At that time I should have realized what was happening, but the fact that he said, “She’s got me” put me off, and somehow I got covered over, and for the next six hours I just tried to comfort him.

He cried out again and again. “Oh, for God’s sake,” he would shout, “just let me rest, just ten minutes. Please, I beg you.” His tone of voice was terrified and all the while humble and begging. I would chant and he would relax a little. Then a nurse would come and distract me, and he would start again, thrashing and begging.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He seemed exasperated. “I’m trying to tell you,” he said, “but I just can’t.”

Then at 3 am it suddenly dawned on me that the Yamadutas had him. It was so obvious, and I felt so foolish for not realizing it until now. I turned to my 13-year-old daughter and told her I thought the Yamadutas had him.

“Yes,” she said. “I know. I woke you up because I saw three of them floating above his bed, and he was cowering and looking up.”

She had actually seen them. She described later how they looked, with boar-like tusks coming upward out of their mouths and glaring eyes. She had thought they were some kind of ghosts trying to steal his soul from his body. Of course, by Krishna’s arrangement, my mother was sleeping, oblivious the whole time.

What to do? I thought. I started to pray to Krishna: “Oh, please let him go, Krishna.” I was begging.

Then Supersoul would answer. “Why?” He would say. “He will only offend again.”

Then I was really upset. I started praying to Yamaraja” “Please, Yamaraja…” And all the while, I was chanting. I told Dad I was sorry I hadn’t realized sooner that they had hold of him. He nodded, traumatized. His whole death experience was hellish. I’m sorry that any souls have to experience such a thing and understand now why Srila Prabhupad felt such urgency to save everyone.

“Dad,” I said, “do you want me to hold you and chant?” “Yes, yes,” he said. “Have they still got you?” “No, they let me go.”

Then I held him tight for the next three hours, and he slowly gave up his life, through his mouth, peacefully with me chanting right in his ear and dripping Ganga and Yamuna water into his mouth. I stayed fully focused on chanting very close to his ear until he breathed his last, at 6 am. He went straight out of his mouth and his eyes just closed.

Poor him! Cruel, cruel, hellish material world! It had been only seven months from the start of his illness, and the seventy-one-year story of his life was forcibly ended.

While he would be thrashing and crying out “Let me loose!” I’d ask the nurses what was happening.

“Oh, it’s normal,” they’d say. “He’s just fighting it, and it happens to everyone. There’s even a term for it. It’s called terminal restlessness. And they give nurses’ seminars about how to deal with it.”

Well I’ve got news for you, folks. It’s actually terminal Yamadutaness. Of course they are advised to just pump them full of morphine and ignore all their ramblings.

Another thing is that no one is meant to know about it. It was purely Krishna’s mercy that we were able to realize it, and even then I almost missed it. For six hours I was confused and yet Dad was telling me quite clearly and begging for help, so some sort of maya is covering the whole thing and people aren’t aware of it. Only the person who is going through it knows.

Mention is made of the dogs. A devotee told me afterwards that they were reading Yamaraja scriptures, which give detailed descriptions, and it is said that the hounds of hell come ahead several days before and sniff out where the rascals are dying.

There was also the fact that he said, “She’s got me.” Apparently the Yamadutas have their own society with wives, kids and everything. Since they are also living entities in this material world, they are born into that society.

I don’t usually put pen to paper, as I don’t feel at all qualified to do so, but mother Radha Kunda Devi Dasi encouraged me and said that this experience should be shared with all the devotees. So please excuse my shortcomings. I am not very philosophical or academic. Here are some of Srila Prabhupada’s comments on the subject:

“To see the Yamadutas, or the carriers of order of Yamaraja, superintendent of death, to see face to face… At the time of death, when one very sinful man is dying, he sees the Yamaraja or the order carriers of Yamaraja. They are very fierce looking. Sometimes the man on the deathbed becomes very much fearful, cries, ‘Save me, save me.’” Srimad Bhagavatam lecture, Denver, July 2, 1975

“But you take this mission and go everywhere, in every corner. I am thankful to you. You are already doing that, in Europe and America, [people are] deep asleep. Because people are sleeping under misguidance, and they are becoming candidate for being carried away by the Yamaduta. This is the position of the whole world, Yamaduta. Yamaduta will not excuse you, however you may be very proud of becoming independent. This is not possible. To save the human civilization, the rascal civilization, that ‘There is no life after death, and you go on enjoying as much as you like,’ this wrong civilization is [a] killing civilization. So you save them. You save them. Otherwise the Yamaduta is there.” Vrindavan, September 5, 1975

“This man was like this, and he must be carried to Yamaraja for punishment…” Why punishment? No, to make him purified, it is said, ‘Punishment required.’ This is nature’s law. Just like if you have infected some disease, the punishment is you must suffer for it. The punishment is good. If you have infected some disease, and when you suffer, that means you become purified from the disease. Suffering is not bad, to become purified. Therefore when a devotee suffers, he does not take it ill. He thinks that, ‘I am being purified. I am being purified.’” Vrindavan, September 5,
1975

So I suppose that even though Dad had Tulasi beads on, he was a good man by ordinary standards, but he liked to hunt, and he had been a drinker, womanizer, and cow eater. And even though he had had all facilities for the last 28 years, he didn’t surrender to Krishna. Even at the time of death, he didn’t seem able to think of Krishna as the solution to his woes.

Srila Prabhupad sums it up in the purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 6.2.49: “At the time of death one is certainly bewildered because his bodily functions are in disorder. At that time, even one who throughout his life has practiced chanting the holy name of the Lord may not be able to chant the Hare Krsna mantra very distinctly. Nevertheless, such a person receives all the benefits of chanting the holy name. While the body is fit therefore, why should we not chant the holy name of the Lord loudly and distinctly? If one does so, it is quite possible that even at the time of death he will be properly able to chant the holy name of the Lord with love and faith.”

Purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 6.2.15: “Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail. If one practices chanting the Hare Krsna mantra, he is naturally expected to chant Hare Krsna when he meets with some accident. Even without such practice, however, if one somehow or other chants the holy name of the Lord (Hare Krsna) when he meets with an accident and dies, he will be saved from hellish life after death. One is immediately absolved from having to enter hellish life, even though he is sinful.”

In the purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 6.2.7: “The Yamadutas had considered only the external situation of Ajamila. Since he was extremely sinful throughout his life, they thought he should be taken to Yamaraja and did not know that he had become free from the reactions of all his sins. The Visnudutas therefore instructed that because he had chanted the four syllables of the name Narayana at the time of his death, he was freed from all sinful reactions.”

In the same purport, Srila Prabhupada quotes the following verses: “Simply by chanting one holy name of Hari, a sinful man can counteract the reactions to more sins than he is able to commit.” Brhad-Visnu Purana

“If one chants the holy name of the Lord, even in a helpless condition or without desiring to do so, all the reactions of his sinful life depart, just as when a lion roars, all the small animals flee in fear.” Garuda Purana

“By once chanting the holy name of the Lord, which consists of the two syllables ha-ri, one guarantees his path to liberation.” Skanda Purana

I can only hope and pray that somehow my father had a small thought of Krishna because of my feeble efforts and the causeless mercy of Guru and Gauranga.

Anyway, I would like the feedback of all the devotees. Do others have similar experiences to tell? What do you all think about this topic?

Please all of you Vaishnavas pray for my father that he may have an opportunity to serve Krishna. I was thinking myself to be the big hero, going to save my father, only to find that I’m just a big bag of hot air zero. I am such a fallen rascal that I couldn’t help him in his hour of need, and I hope this story helps others to advance their efforts in Krishna consciousness so that we can all help Srila Prabhupada in his mission to relieve all the sufferings of the fallen conditioned souls.

The post Terminal Restlessness – The Yamadutas at the Time of Death appeared first on IndiaDivine.org.

In his Discourse on Sanskrit and Its Literature, given at the College of France, Professor Bournouf states, “We will study India with its philosophy and its myths, its literature, its laws and its language. Nay it is more than India, it is a page of the origin of the world that we will attempt to decipher.”

In History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, Max Mueller observed, “In the Rig-veda we shall have before us more real antiquity than in all the inscriptions of Egypt or Ninevah. . the Veda is the oldest book in existence”

On a more personal note, another famous German thinker, Schopenhaur, remarked in his book, The Upanishads, “In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life (and) it will be the solace of my death.”

What are the Vedas ?

Before beginning our discussion on the antiquity of the Vedic civilization, we should first of all understand what the Vedas are. The Sanskrit root vid means ‘to know’. Hence Veda means knowledge. The term Vedic refers to the literature and teachings of the Vedas. The Vedic scriptures are the spiritual literature of the ancient Indian culture, written in the Sanskrit language. They comprise of a huge collection of books which include material (mundane), religious (ritualistic) as well as spiritual (monotheistic) knowledge.

The Vedas are immense in both their size and scope. Quantitatively , the Bible and the Koran do not compare , and the Vedas easily surpass the lengthy ancient works such as Homer’s epics and the sacred cannon of China. For example,Mahabharata, one of the Vedic Historical texts, has 110,000 four line stanzas, making it the world’s largest poem – approximately eight times as old as Iliad and Odyssey combined. Ramayana, another vedic history, on the other hand , consists of 24,000 couplets. The Vedic literature comprise not only of the Rig, Yajur,Atharva and the sama vedas but also of Upanishads,Puranas, Bhagavad Gita and itihasas like Ramayana & Mahabharata. It encompasses all literature that uphold the Vedic tradition and culture.

Talking about the Vedic scope, it includes the nature, the universe, and a grand hierarchy of living beings – nonhumans, humans & humanoids. There is a large section of the Vedic literature , dealing with the detailed descriptions of the non-material worlds beyond the entire fabric of time and space.

For the earthly humans, however, the Vedas prescribe a balance between their spiritual and material lives. The Vedic social system combines the material impetus with the spiritual dynamics, and places a great emphasis on civilization as a precise tool for both material and spiritual upliftment.

Digging into the Past: A City Dating Back to 7500 BC

As was announced on January 16, 2002 from New Delhi , that the Indian scientists found pieces of wood, remains of pots, fossil bones ,etc near the coast of Surat ,Indian Science and Technology Minister Murli Manohar Joshi told a news conference. He said, “Some of these artifacts recovered by the National Institute of Ocean Technology from the site, such as the log of wood date back to 7500 bce, which is indicative of a very ancient culture in the present Gulf of Cambay, that got submerged subsequently.” Current belief is that the first cities appeared around 3500 bce in the valley of Sumer, where Iraq now stands. “We can safely say from the antiquities and the acoustic images of the geometric structures that there was human activity in the region more than 9,500 years ago (7500 BC),” said S.N. Rajguru, an independent archaeologist.

Michael A. Cremo, historian of archeology , claims that all the history textbooks would have to be rewritten if this ancient find proves to be of Vedic origin. According to Cremo, “The ancient Sanskrit writings of India speak of cities existing on the Indian subcontinent in very primeval times. Although historians tend to dismiss such accounts as mythological, these new discoveries promise to confirm the old literary accounts.”

Discovering River Saraswati

The legend of the mighty Saraswati river has lived on in India since time immemorial. The Vedic scriptures are full of tantalizing hymns about it being the life-stream of the people.

An Indian and French archaeological field team on the ground, coordinating with a French SPOT satellite in space , has ascertained that the Saraswati River , as described in the Vedas, is fact, not mythology. Vividly exposing the signatures of old rivers and their branches, data from SPOT shows that the Saraswati did exist.The Satellite’s sensors and pointable optics reveal the dried bed of a river extending from the present Ghaggar River and flowing four miles wide, in the region of India, west of what is now Delhi. In what is now Punjab, the Satellite imagery has shown the Saraswati’s bed to be twelve miles wide. From space, researchers can detect that Saraswati had several tributaries, watering an immense area of fertile soil. Traces of artificial canals watering remote agricultural locations are also visible.

Ancient Hindu Temples Found worldwide

A Siva Lingam monument, a relic from the lost Champa Kingdom, stands proudly at the My Son site in Vietnam. Images depicting the Yoni and Lingam can be found in Hindu-influenced cultures across the entire Asian region.

A Cangkuang villager hunting for termites under a tree discovered a sharp hand-carved stone. Further investigation revealed that the location was the site of an ancient Vedic/Hindu temple. ony Djubiantono, head of West Java’s Bandung Archeology Agency says, “Based on a preliminary finding of various remains there are indications that this is a Hindu temple built in the seventh or eighth century.”

The ancient Nandeeshwara temple(dedicated to lord Shiva) at Malleswaram was discovered only three years ago, but it has stood for 7,000 years on that spot. Being buried over the years hasn’t diminished its aura at all. The temple was discovered recently when the land was being dug up and it was found that the temple had remained untouched over the years .

Nearly 40 kilometers from the Thai-Cambodia border the Chen Sran temple has been discovered in the jungle of the northern Preah Vihear province. It was built in the ninth or tenth century, and is dedicated to the Vedic tradition. The temple stands 15 meters tall, and is 150 meters in length by 100 meters wide. Nearly 50 percent of the structure is damaged and most of its artifacts have been plundered, even though there is no decent road to the temple.

Archaeologists have found a statue of Nandi, the sacred bull that carried the Hindu god Shiva, among the ruins of what is believed to be an ancient temple at an excavation site in Yogyakarta in Indonesia.

In south Germany, a prehistoric idol of “lion-man” has been discovered which has caused amazement to scientists around the world. It is made out of tusk of a mammoth in the form of a human body with a lion head. Amazingly it is dated to be 32000 years old. The artifact was discovered in a cave named Stadel-Höhle im Hohlenstein in the Lonetal of the Swabian Alps, Germany. The figure was found exactly at the place in the cave where day and night meet, about 20 meters away from the entrance and buried 1.20 meter deep under the ground. The Vedic scriptures tell us that Krishna appeared in the divine form of a half-man, half-lion with a lion face, to protect His devotee Prahlad and to stop irreligion, personified by the demon Hiranyakasipu. A description of a standing Deity form of Nrsimha Avatara of the Lord is found in the agama Silpa Shastra, and is referred to as kevala-narasimha.

Major Anthropology Find Reported in India

Scientists report they have found evidence of the oldest human habitation in India, dating to 2 million years, on the banks of the Subarnarekha River. The 30-mile stretch between Ghatshila in the province of Jharkhand and Mayurbhanj in Orissa has reportedly yielded tools that suggest the site could be unique in the world, with evidence of human habitation without a break from 2 million years ago to 5,000 B.C. which makes it more important than even the Aldovai Gorge in East Africa, the Somme Valley of France, Stonehenge in England or the Narmada basin in Madhya Pradesh.

Anthropologist S. Chakraborty told the Calcutta Telegraph: “There are no signs of terra incognito (a break in the continuum) in the Subarnarekha valley, unlike any other site in India. Some of the heavier tools resemble those found in the East African stone-age shelters, used by the Australopithecus.”

Ancient Vishnu Deity Found in Russia

An ancient Vishnu idol (Vishnu is an incarnation of the Supreme God, as mentioned in the Vedas) has been found during excavation in an old village in Russia’s Volga region, raising questions about the prevalent view on the origin of ancient Russia.

The idol found in Staraya (old) Maina village dates back to VII-X century AD. Staraya Maina village in Ulyanovsk region was a highly populated city 1700 years ago, much older than Kiev, so far believed to be the mother of all Russian cities.

“We may consider it incredible, but we have ground to assert that Middle-Volga region was the original land of Ancient Rus. This is a hypothesis, but a hypothesis, which requires thorough research,” Reader of Ulyanovsk State University’s archaeology department Dr Alexander Kozhevin told state-run television Vesti .

Dr Kozhevin, who has been conducting excavation in Staraya Maina for last seven years said that every single square metre of the surroundings of the ancient town situated on the banks of Samara, a tributary of Volga, is studded with antiques.

Prior to unearthing of the Vishnu idol, Dr Kozhevin has already found ancient coins, pendants, rings and fragments of weapons. (Times of India, Dec 2006)

Tamil Brahmi Script Found in Egypt

A broken storage jar with inscriptions in an ancient form of Tamil script, dated to the first century BCE., has been excavated in Egypt.

Dr. Roberta Tomber, a pottery specialist at the British Museum, London, identified the fragmentary vessel as a storage jar made in India. Iravatham Mahadevan, a specialist in Tamil epigraphy, has confirmed that the inscription on the jar is in Tamil written in the Tamil Brahmi script of about the first century. (The Hindu, November 2007)

Vedic Culture and Today’s World

The above evidences clearly hint at the existence of a worldwide flourishing Vedic civilization, not so long ago, signifying the importance and authenticity of the Vedic scriptures. It shows, that our forefathers walked the Vedic path to attain the higher essential spiritual goals of life.

As a matter of fact, the Vedic civilization, being the oldest , has influenced every major culture and religion around the world that we know today, and can be declared as the parent of humanity.

The philosopher and researcher Edward Pococke also wrote about this conclusion in his book India in Greece (page 251). He states: “Sir William Jones concluded that the Hindus had an immemorial antiquity with the old Persians, Ethiopians and Egyptians, the Phoenicians, Greeks and Tuscans, the Scythians or Goths, and the Celts, the Chinese, Japanese and Peruvians.”

Pococke continues in his observation: “Now the whole of the society of Greece, civil and military, must strike one as being eminently Asiatic, much of it specially Indian. I shall demonstrate that these evidences were but the attendant tokens of Indian colonization with its corresponding religion and language. I shall exhibit dynasties disappearing from India, western India, to appear again in Greece, clans who fought upon the plains of Troy.” Therefore, since Greece is supposed to be the origins of European culture, and since Greece displays much of the same culture as India, we can say that the pre-Christian culture of Europe was Vedic.

William Durant, author of the 10-volume Story of Civilization, wrote, “India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of European languages. She was the mother of our philosophy, of our mathematics, of the ideals embodied in Christianity, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all.”

The above quotes would indicate that the Vedic culture was a global faith, a world influence. This may be given further credence in the remarks of Ctesias, the Greek writer that “The Hindus were as numerous as all the other nations put together.”

This is further corroborated in P. N. Oak’s World Vedic Heritage (p. 506) in which he presents evidence that, “In pre-Christian times the temples of Vedic Deities such as Vishnu, Shiva, the Mother goddess, Rama, Hanuman, and Krishna used to abound in all regions of the world. Evidence of this is found in the works of ancient authors such as Megasthenes, Strabo, and Herodotus. All those names are of Vedic origin, too. The term Megasthenes is Megh-Sthan-eesh, i.e. the Lord of the Region of the clouds. The name Herodotus is Hari-dootus, i.e. Messenger of [Hari] God.”

In Some Missing Chapters of World History P. N. Oak also explains that Shiva was worshiped all over the world, even in the Vatican. The word vatican comes from the Sanskrit word vatica, which means a bower or sylvan hermitage. He explains that even the premises of the Vatican have many Shiva emblems buried in their walls and cellars. Many such emblems have been dug up in other parts of Italy as well. And some of those found in the Vatican are still preserved in the Vatican’s Etruscan museum.

Similarly, there is striking similarity in all major religions in the world and by careful comparison, we can trace back the essence in all of them to the teachings of the Vedic literature. We can understand how the Vedic culture influenced Zoroastrianism, which influenced Judaism, which influenced Christianity, which influenced Islam. However, each succeeding religion became more distant from the original spiritual teachings and understanding, until each one thought that, rather than offering truths and processes to be followed, they promoted the idea that they were the only way, superior to all else. This topic however is outside the scope of this article and I shall deal with it some other day.

The Universal Message of the Vedas

The Vedas are compared to a desire tree because they contain all things knowable by man. They deal with mundane necessities as well as spiritual realization. The Vedas contain regulated principles of knowledge covering social, political, religious, economic, military, medicinal, chemical, physical, metaphysical subject matter and above all specific directions for spiritual realization.

The real essence of Vedic literatures can be categorized into three headings:

Sambandha: Understanding the answers to the questions, “Who am I? Who is God? What is my relation with God?”

Abhideya: The process of reviving our relationship with God

Prayojana: The mature result: attainment of love of God.

Thus the three subject matters described in the Vedic literature are: the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the central point of all relationships,

acting in devotional service to Him is one’s real occupation and attainment of love of God is the ultimate goal of life.

Further the Bhagavad-gita (4.34) enjoins the sincere seekers to approach a bonafide spiritual master for this purpose and “Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.”

The post The Antiquity of Vedic Civilization appeared first on IndiaDivine.org.

After the Mahabharata War, the Yadava Clan was very nearly destroyed and a Group left Bharatavarsha,now called India .They spread throughout the world and in the words of Gene D. Matlock.

“Even ancient Hindu mythology states that the forefathers of the Hindus came down in successive waves from Eastern Siberia (Uttara Kuru). Even now, the major tribes in Eastern Siberia bear virtually the same names as the three major grass-roots Indian groups: Saka, Buryat, and Yakuts.

In India, they became the Saka (Scythians), Bharats, and Yakhu-Deva (Now the Yadavas). The Yadavas later became the Hebrews or the Phoenicians and Jews, fathering the civilizations of all mankind. As you’ve read in some E-Mails I’ve received, some people hate me for saying that.

The Bharats were the Kashi or founding leadership caste of India. The Sakas (Scythians) became the fathers of Guatama Buddha and also the Mesheks that the Bible talks about. These Mesheks became our American Indians because the Bharats and Yadavas feared them as did our forefathers in Bibleland.

As I said in a prior E-Mail, the evangelican Christians, who make much of “Last Days Prophecies,” say that the Meshecks of Russia and Turkey will take us over. However, thousands of real Mesheks (Meshika) cross over into our country every day – and even ancient Mexican myths prophesied this.

By the way, DNA tests proved that these Siberian groups and the Hindus of Northern India share the same DNA. I have even more proof of these matters in my files and references.

Uttara Kuru was an ancient kingdom located north of the India. The name Uttara Kuru means the Northern Kurus. The Kurus were a tribe during the Vedic civilization of India. The Uttara Kuru were therefore a population to the north of the Kurus, or north of the Himalayas.

Some historians identify this kingdom as Kyrgistan, a Central Asian Republic. This identification is based on the Mahabharata epic which describes a Kuru warrior Bhishmaabducting three brides from the Kasi kingdom for making them wives of his half-brother Vichitravirya. This same custom of abduction of brides by bridgegroom or his allies for marrying them, still prevails in Kyrgistan.

At some point during the reign of Pururavas-Aila (the first king mentioned in the line of lunar dynasty of Indian kings) Uttara Kuru and the Kurus of India could have belonged to the same Kuru Empire. Arjuna collected tribute from Uttara Kuru during his northern military campaign for Yudhisthira’s Rajasuya sacrifice. The epics also mention that they followed a republican constitution with no monarchy.’

Krishna’s son Pradyumna Established a Kingdom in Siberia.

It is believed that a Palace built by him is in Por Bajin. This hasa striking resemblance to Krishna’s Dwaraka, now excavated off the coast of Gujarat, India.

‘Por-Bajin is legally treated as one of the most mysterious archaeological monuments of Russia,’ says the official website for the complex, about 3,800km from Moscow.

‘Apparently it was built at the period of the Uighur Khagante nomadic empire (744-840 AD), but it’s not clear what they built a fortress for in such a solitary place, far from big settlements and trade routes. ‘The architecture also produces many questions and it has reminders of a model of an ideal Chinese city-palace.’

Por-Bajin, which translates as ‘clay house’ in the Tuvan language, is located in the very centre of Eurasia, on the borders of Russia and Mongolia. It sits on a small island in a lake high in the mountains between the Sayan and Altai ranges, about five miles west of the isolated Kungurtuk settlement in southern Siberia

Bajrapur is mentioned as Vajrapur in the Harivamsa Purana. The story of Vajrapur was revealed by the ruler of Jaiselmer in the 1790s to Lt. Col. James Tod, Political Agent of the East India Company, who was researching the Rajput tribes of India which included the Yadhu tribe, of which Sri Krishna and his son Pradyamna are the most well known.

The ruins of the City of Por Bajin located in Siberia bears an uncanny resemblance to the design of Dwarka City, which was the city that Sri Krishna had built earlier.

The Harivamsa Purana describes the conquest of Vajrapuram in the Vishnu Paran section. It says that an a city was built by ‘builder’ Nikumba for King Vajranabha with the name Vajrapuram (later Bajra Pur). The city was an ‘Asura’ city in a far off land.

In his work ‘The Goose in Indian Literature and Art’ (Volume 2 of Memoirs of the Kern Institute), author Jean Philippe Vogel writes that the ancient Vajrapura was surrounded by a huge lake. Por Bajin, as it is called today, is surrounded by a lake called ‘Tere Kol. ‘Kul’ (कूल) in Sanskrit means ‘lake’, ‘pond’ or ‘pool’. Or else, ‘Tere Kol’ may be a distortion of ‘Tri-Kut’ (त्रिकूट) meaning ‘Three Peaks or Ranges’ which maybe a reference to the surrounding Altay, Sayan and Tochi Mountain Ranges.

As per various ancient Indian sources, Sri Krishna’s son Pradyamna is known to have extended the Yadhu Empire north of what is present day India. He had attacked the city of Vajrapura and defeated King Vajranabha. Later a truce was called and Pradyamna married the king’s daughter Prabhavati. The poetic versions of this war say that Pradyumna is transported by geese to a land far far away.

Siberia -‘the beautiful land’. Siberia translates as ‘the beautiful land’ from Sanskrit. In Sanskrit ‘Su’ (सु) means ‘good’ or ‘beautiful’ and ‘Pura’ (पुरा), ‘Puri’ (पुरी) or ‘puram’ (पुरम) all mean ‘land’ or ‘city’. It may well have been the beauty of the land, rather than of a woman, that attracted the Yadus to Siberia.

Many rivers in Siberia still bear Sanskrit names – examples: Tara (तारा), Om (ओम्), ‘Apa’ (आप) and the ‘Angara’ (अङ्गार). For a note on the Sanskrit Connection to the names ‘Angara’ and lake ‘Baikal’ click here.

There were inroads made already into the East and the Kingdom was called the Uttara Kuru.

Source: ramanan50.wordpress.com

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During the deluge before the latest re-creation of the universe, the four Vedas (the Holy Scriptures) which were required by Brahma for the re-creation were drowned deep in the waters.

Vishnu took the form of a fish to retrieve the sacred scriptures. Another legend has it that Vishnu in his Matsya Avatar instructed Manu (the progenitor of mankind in each creation) to build a huge boat and gather samples of all species in it. The Matsya then pulled the ark to safety through the deluge and floods to enable Brahma to start the work of re-creation.

Legend

One day while bathing, Satyavrata (also called Manu by some) accidentally catches a small fish in his hands. To his surprise, the fish looks at him and starts talking to him. It asks Manu to save its life and protect it in return for which the Matsya will protect Manu from an impending flood about which it is aware of.

When Manu agrees to help, the fish first asks him to put it in a jar of water, and then when it outgrows the same, it asks him to dig a pit, fill it with water and put it in the pit. Later, when it outgrows the pit, it asks Manu to transfer it to the ocean, by which time it is big enough to survive and is also indestructible.

At this point, the fish asks Manu to build himself a boat and be ready for the impending flood. It also instructs him that when the flood waters increase, he should think of the fish that will then come over to help him out.

When the flood begins, Manu boards the boat and then prays to the fish for assistance. The fish then appears and ties the boat to a horn that has grown on its head. It uses the serpent Vasuki as the rope to tie the boat to its horn. The fish then tows this boat to safety and takes Manu to the highest and driest point left on the earth.

It is told that as the matsya swam through the flood waters he discoursed as Manu on the various topics and revealed to him the knowledge of the Vedas, Puranas, Samhitas and the Supreme Truth.

Some versions also have the matsya instructing Manu to collect seeds of all types of plants and assembling the saptarishis (seven great sages) on the boat that is then rescued by the great matsya.

Symbols of Matsya Avatar

The story of a great Deluge is found in many civilizations across the earth. It is often related to the Genesis narrative of the flood and Noah’s Ark. The fish motif and saving of the scriptures from a demon being additions in the Hindu tale. Similar flood myths also exist in tales from ancient Sumer and Babylonia, Greece, the Maya of Americas and the Yoruba of Africa.

Matsya is believed to symbolise the first stage of evolution, as aquatic life was the first beings on earth. The tale of Matsya may be interpreted as a creation myth where Manu creates beings of the world and men after they destroyed in the flood, though the creation is never the focus of the legend. Some authors consider the tale not a flood myth, but symbolic in nature. Manu’s boat is representative of moksha (salvation), which helps one to cross over.

Himalayas is treated as a boundary between the earthly existence and land of salvation beyond. God as the fish guides one to salvation. The horn of the fish is symbolic of “sacrificial values”. The presence of fish seems to be an allusion to the Indian “law of the fishes”, an equivalent to the “law of the jungle”, when the fish seeks protection from being eaten by a larger fish.

Treated as a parable, the tale advises a good king should protect the weak from the mighty, reversing the “law of fishes” and uphold dharma, like Manu, the progenitor of mankind and in particular two royal dynasties, thus an ideal king. In the tales where the demon hides the Vedas, dharma is threatened and Vishnu as the divine Saviour, rescues dharma, aided by his earthly counterpart, Manu – the king.

Worship of Matsya Avatar

The Sri Matsyanarayana Temple is a unique and the only temple in Karnataka for Bhagavan Sri Matsyanarayana Swamy. Bhagavan Sri Matsyanarayana is the first Avatara among the Dashavataras (Ten Avataras) of Bhagavan MahaVishnu in the form of Fish to protect the creation from great deluge.

By worshiping him, through his grace generally one gains health, wealth, Pease and prosperity and specially one gets cured of rare skin diseases and gains abundant wealth. Where ever Bhagavan Sri Matsyanarayana’s presence is there all the Vastu Doshas will get nullified.

Salient Features:

1. Place the Yantra in the water filled plate in such a way that it will get immersed in water and worship it daily.
2. Replace the water regularly.
3. After worshipping the Yantra chant the Matsya Maha Mantra 108 times (facing east or north) daily.

The post Why Was Lord Vishnu Born as Matsya Avatar appeared first on IndiaDivine.org.

Azhwars (or Alvar) are the Vaishnavite saints who had composed a collection of 4000 hymns, called Nalayira Divya Prabhandham (4000 divine verses) in praise of Lord Vishnu and His many avatars.

These verses are called “Dravida Veda” ­ that is Vedas in the Tamil language! The word Azhwar, in Tamil, means “one who is immersed”. Since the azhwars were immersed in their devotion and love for the Lord, they were called so.The azhwars are twelve in number:­ 11 men and 1 woman, and they belonged to various castes, by birth. The only common thread amongst them all was their unwavering devotion to Lord Vishnu.

The traditional view of the beginning of the timeline for the azhwars has been from the end of Dvapara yuga. The first three azhwars are said to have been born at the end of Dvapara yuga, just after Krishna departed from this earth.

1. Poigai Azhwar:

Considered as the first of the 12 azhwars, poigai azhwar was found in a pond (Poigai in Tamil) in the Yadhothakaari temple in Kanchipuram (near Chennai), hence he is called Poigai Azhwar. He is believed to have been born as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu’s conch,­ Panchajanya. He composed 100 songs in praise of the Lord.

2. Bhoothath Azhwar:

Bhoothathazhwar was found in a liquorice flower (Athimathuram in Tamil) in a pond at the Kadalmallai temple (at present Mahabalipuram near Chennai). Bhootham means one who is possessed. Since this azhwar was so possessed by his devotion to the Lord, he was called Bhoothathazhwar. He is believed to have been born as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu’s mace ­ Kaumodakee. He composed 100 songs in praise of the Lord.

3. Peyazhwar Azhwar:

Peyazhwar was born in Mylai (at present Mylapore in Chennai). He was found in a lily (Alli) flower in the pond of Sri AdiKesava Perumal temple. Like bhoothathazhwar, the name “Peyazhwar” also signifies one who was possessed by Lord’s devotion. Peyazhwar also composed 100 hymns in praise of the Lord.

4. Thirumazhisai Azhwar:

Thirumazhisai Azhwar was born to a saint named Bharghava Muni. He is considered to be an incarnation of Lord’s discus ­ Sudharshana Chakra. Since at birth, Thirumazhisai azhwar’s body was incomplete without any of the limbs, the parents left the baby at a nearby ditch. The Lord and His Consort appeared before the baby and blessed him with a complete body. He was then adopted by another person.

The adoptive mother then gave birth to another boy, named KaniKannan, who became an ardent disciple of Thirumazhisai Azhwar. Once the king ordered KaniKannan to leave the country as he refused to sing the praise of the King, citing his vow that he,­ just like his guru, will only sing the praise of the Lord. When KaniKannan readied to leave the country, Thirumazhisai Azhwar also left the country along with him. On their way out, they went to the Yadhothakari temple and told the Lord also to come along with them. The Lord rolled his mat (Adhisesha) and left along as well.

The King then repented for his mistake and requested them all to come back in his country. All three of them then returned to their original abode. Thirumazhisai Azhwar learnt Buddhism and Jainism as well. He became an ardent devote of Lord Shiva. Once he saw an old man who was planting a tree upside down. Upon inquiry, the old man said this is not more foolish than Thirumazhisai azhwar’s devotion to Shiva in search of Moksha as only Narayana can grant Moksha.

Azhwar then got this verified by Lord Shiva himself that the only Lord Narayana can grant Moksha. The person who changed azhwar’s mind to become a vaishnavite was none other than Peyazhwar. Thirumazhisai azhwar has sung 216 hymns in praise of the Lord.

5. Thirumangai Azhwar:

Thirumangai Azhwar was born in ThirukKuraiyaloor village, to a Chola chieftan, as an incarnation of Lord’s divine bow ­ the Saaranga. Thirumangai azhwar was named Neelan and was brought up as a brave prince, who eventually became the king of “Thirumangai” country. When he sought the hands of Kumuda Valli for marriage, she put forth two conditions:

1. 1008 devotees of Vishnu will have to be fed by them everyday.
2. Their feet would be washed with water and that water will be sprinkled on Neelan and herself.

The king agreed to both the conditions and happily married Kumuda. Feeding 1008 people on a daily basis took its toll on Neelan’s finances, hence he became poor and couldn’t pay the taxes to the Chola king. To continue the service of feeding the devotees, Neelan took to mugging and theft. Once he tried to take away the jewels of a newly married couple, he faced a physical challenge in removing the groom’s ring from his finger.

While trying to remove the ring, Neelan asked the groom if he had some magical power to hold the ring back. The groom (who was actually Lord Narayana) told him the meaning of “Ashtakshara Mantra” ­ the supreme 8 letter mantra of Om Namo Narayanaya. On hearing this and on touching the Lord’s feet for removing the ring, Neelan’s mind gets corrected and he starts praising the Lord and His Consort ­ Lakshmi. The Lord then told him to go to all temples and sing in praise of the Lord.

6. Thondaradipodi Azhwar:

Thondaradipodi was born in a village named “Thiru mandaggudi” near Tanjore, Tamil Nadu, as an incarnation of Vishnu’s garland Vanamaala. He was born to a brahmin parents who named him “Vipra Narayanar”. He used to be so engrossed in his love for the Lord that he never paid any worldly attention to women.

Once two sisters who were dancers at the King’s court were passing through Vipra Narayanar’s garden while the latter did not even notice these beautiful ladies near him. The younger sister then vowed to gain his attention and his love. She faked her identity as a desolate woman and gained his confidence and trust. Eventually Vipra Narayana will fall in love with this dancer. She began to love him sincerely as well.

However, her mom was money minded and asked Vipra Narayana to gift her expensive ornaments/silverware in return for her daughter’s hand. Vipra Narayana returned to his hermitage with disappointment. The Lord decided to play a divine game here. He disguised Himself as a disciple of Vipra Narayana and went to the dancer’s mom with a huge silver vessel, claiming to have been sent by Vipra Narayana himself.

The next morning, the temple archakas found the temple’s silver vessel missing and traced it to the dancer’s mom who then pointed at Vipra Narayana as her source of the vessel. Before the King could punish them, the Lord appeared in the King’s dreams and explained the situation. The King then sent back Vipra Narayana with utmost respect.

Vipra Narayana spent the rest of his life as an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. Vipra Narayana considered himself as lowly than the dust particle of a Vishnu’s devotee, hence the name Thondaradi podi azhwar. Thondar = devotee, adi = feet/sand on the feet, podi = small/lowly.

7. Thiruppaan Azhwar:

Thiruppaan azhwar was born in the Paanar (musician) caste in a village called Uraiyoor near Sri Rangam, as an incarnation of Srivatsa ­ the mole on Lord Vishnu’s chest.

Due to the erstwhile restrictions on people of certain castes, the Paanar people were not allowed to touch the Cauvery water or to visit the Sri Rangam shrine. So Thiruppaan azhwar used to stand across the other bank of the Cauvery river and sing praises on Sri Ranganatha. Once Sri Ranganatha came in the dreams of a devout Brahmin Loka Saaranga Maha Muni, who used to bring Cauvery water for Lord’s Holy bath, and asked him to carry Thiruppaan azhwar on his shoulders the next day.

Despite huge protest by Thiruppaan azhwar, Saaranga Muni forced him to get on to his shoulders and carried him to the Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple. The world got to know the intent of the Lord (that caste doesn’t matter when it comes to devotion and attaining Lord’s affection).

8. Periyazhwar:

Periyazhwar was born in SriVilliputthur in Tamilnadu, as an incarnation of Garuda,­ Lord Vishnu’s vehicle. He was raised with great stories from Krishna Avatara and other avataras.

Once the King of Madurai had a doubt regarding his next life ­ “if he wanted to have a good next life, what should he be doing about it?”

He announced huge prize money for someone who could give him a satisfactory answer. Lord Vishnu came in Periyazhwar’s dreams and asked him to go to the King the next day. Periyazhwar went to the King and explained how surrendering one’s ego, wealth and anger and show dedicated devotion to the Lord will fetch salvation. The King was overjoyed on hearing this response and gave the prize money to Periyazhwar and also named him “Pattarpiraan”.

Periyazhwar dedicated the money to Lord Narayana and continued his garland service to the Lord.

9. Sri Andal:

Andal was the adoptive daughter of Periyazhwar. Lord Vishnu’s consort Bhoo devi incarnated as Andal.

She was found near a Tulsi plant while Periyazhwar was tending to his garden. Her childhood was filled with stories of Krishna’s mischief, childly play and also divine powers. Periyazhwar used to make a garland for the Lord everyday. Andal used to wear it on herself, check in the mirror as if talking to Krishna and then send it with Periyazhwar ­ all this was happening without Periyazhwar’s notice.

Once Periyazhwar came to know of this act of his child, he begged the Lord to forgive both of them and that he would bring a fresh garland then and there. The Lord however refused to wear the garland not worn by Andal! Such was the Lord’s affection towards this child! By the time Andal grew up, she had determined to get married to the Lord only. She sung verses by dreaming up her marriage with the Lord. She did a “Paavai” ritual during the month of Margashirsha­ getting up very early in the morning, gathering all her friends (pretending to be gopikas!), go to the river and pray to the Lord.

Each day she sung hymns to wake her friends up and in praise of the Lord. The collection of those 30 hymns are known world over as Thiruppaavai. At the end of the paavai ritual, Lord Ranganatha came in the dreams of Periyazhwar and asked him to bring Andal to his temple the next morning. Andal went with Periyazhwar to the temple and the Lord accepted her as His own wife!

10. Nammazhwar:

Nammazhwar was born as incarnation of Vishwaksena (Vishnu’s commander), in the Vellala tribe of Thirunelveli.

As a child, Nammazhwar never ate or spoke or even opened his eyes. His distraught parents left him near a temple. He crawled by himself and sat under a tamarind tree, where he would sit and meditate for 16 years. He was finally made to speak and made to lecture on dharma sashtras by MadhuraKavi azhwar, who became his disciple. Nammazhwar was named so, by Lord Ranganatha himself who called him “Namm Azhwar” ­ meaning “my devotee”!

After the life of Nammazhwar, for 100s of years, Sri Vaishnavism went into a decline, eclipsed by Buddhism, Jainism etc. It was Nammazhwar who handed over the 4000 hymns of Divya Prabhandham to NadhaMuni whose disciples/lineage until Sri Ramanuja would later spread the divine hymns to the world.

11. Madhurakavi Azhwar:

Madhura kavi azhwar was born as incarnation of Garuda, Vishnu’s vehicle, in a village called Thirukkolur. Madhurakavi azhwar is different from the remaining azhwars that while other azhwars held on to Lord Vishnu as their only way to salvation and praised Him in their songs, Madhurakavi azhwar always held on to his Guru Nammazhwar as his only way to salvation and praised him in the songs!

Madhurakavi azhwar was once visiting Ayodhya temple and he suddenly saw a bright light across the sky. He kept following that light until he found the source of the light under the Tamarind tree (the place where Nammazhwar was seated), as mentioned above. He would then ask Nammazhwar questions on philosophies and devotion, and eventually become the disciple of Nammazhwar himself.

12. Kulasekara Azhwar:

Kulasekara azhwar was born as incarnation of Kaustubha,­ Lord Vishnu’s chest jewel. Kulasekara azhwar was born to the Chera King and was brought up with warrior training as in any other prince of the time. However, he was also a great devotee of Lord Vishnu.

Once he heard the story of Sri Rama from an old saint and asked his warriors to get ready for a war with Raavana! Once the saint told him that the war is over and Sri Rama won the war single­handedly, Kulasekara azhwar asked his warriors to get back to their places. The ministers were not happy with this behaviour of their king who would easily be carried away by Vishnu devotees. Hence they devised a plan and stole Lord Vishnu’s jewels and put the blame of the devotees.

Kulasekara azhwar, unable to believe their story, asked for a pot of snakes to be brought. He announced to his ministers that he would be putting his hand in to the pot. If the jewels were indeed stolen by devotees, let the snakes bite him. If not, he will escape without getting hurt. Kulasekara azhwar put his hand into the pot and came out unhurt. His ministers then accepted the truth and begged forgiveness from the King and from the devotees as well. Kulasekara azhwar remained a faithful devotee to the Lord for his lifetime.

Let us all pray for the Azhwars’ blessings to fall upon us.

The post Azhwars: The Mystic Vaishnavite Saints of the South India appeared first on IndiaDivine.org.

Srimad Bhagavatham, one of the 18 puranas of Hinduism, expounds the many gunas of Lord Sriman Narayana through many stories of His devotees. It has an interesting story of a person named Ajamila.

Ajamila was a pious and religious Brahmin. One day, when he was collecting wood from the forest for his ritual purposes, he came across a beautiful woman and immediately fell for her beauty. His lust for the lady, who was a prostitute, distracted him completely from his earlier pious life. He abandoned his family, his rituals and practices, and started living with her.

Many years later, when it was time for him to leave this mortal world, the messengers of Yama came to him and told him that his time was up and that they were going to tie their noose around him and take him to Naraka (hell) for all his sins. Hearing this, Ajamila was very scared.

Sensing his end is near, he wanted to see his son one last time as he had immense affection for him. Fortunately, he had named his son as Narayana. At this sorrowful time, he called out aloud to his son.

Suddenly there appeared 4 divine beings, whose face was as bright as the sun, whose very presence with their divine smile, soothed the mind of Ajamila. These 4 divine beings stopped Yama dhootas (Yama’s messengers) from tying the noose around Ajamila. Upon enquiry by Yama dhootas, the divine beings introduced themselves as Narayana dhootas (messengers of Lord Sriman Narayana). An interesting conversation ensued between the two sets of messengers:

Yama dhootas (YD): Who are you all?

Narayana dhootas (ND): We are messengers of Lord Narayana

YD: Why have you come here? And why are you stopping us from doing our duty?

ND: We have come here to stop you from taking his life away. We will take him to Vaikunta at the right time (Vaikunta is Sriman Narayana’s abode, and abode of those who have attained moksha/salvation)

YD: How can he qualify to go to Vaikunta? For all the sins he has committed, our Lord Yama has ordered him to be taken to hell!

ND: Sins? What sins are you talking about? Define sins and good deeds for us, please!

YD: Doing duties ordained by Vedas is punya or good deed, doing otherwise is paapam or sin. This man, all through his life, has only committed sins. So he deserves to be taken to hell. So, please stay away and let us do our duty.

ND: Perhaps what you say is true. However, the same man, near his last breath, has called out the name of Sriman Narayana. So his sins have been cleared and he deserves to be taken to Vaikunta.

YD: Just by reciting the name of the Lord, will all the sins vanish?

ND: Yes, and not just that. Even if a man recites the name of the Lord without knowing its meaning, without the intention to call the Lord (in case of Ajamila, he only called out to his son), even for reasons like just to mock a person by calling his name, or to scold him, the divine name will bestow its blessings upon the caller, and hence absolve him of his sins, just like how fire consumes anything that comes in its way irrespective of the intent. Now please go back to your Lord Yama and clarify the same with Him.

The Yama dhoothas went to Lord Yama and appraised Him of their conversation with Vishnu dhoothas. Lord Yama then called them near him and said in a hushed tone, “I’m the Lord for all people but Vaishnavas. Don’t go near any Vishnu bhakthas with the intent of taking their life away”.

Meanwhile, Ajamila realised how powerful, at the same time, merciful the name of Lord Narayana is and repented for his sins. He immediately left the lowly life that he was living until then and went back to his family and lived a pious life, devoted to Lord Sriman Narayana.

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The remnant of the dead body after burning is left behind in the form of ashes. Hindus respectfully call these ashes “phool” – literally flowers – to express devotion and respect for the departed soul. When children are symbolically referred to as “fruit”, it is appropriate to refer to the ashes of forefathers as “flowers”.

It is customary to gather the ashes on the fouth day after death. They are then immersed in sacred rivers like the Ganga. If it is not possible to immerse them immediately, they are kept in a locker in the crematorium and immersed as soon as possible.

In Shankhsmriti, page 7, the consigning of ashes to the Ganga is explained:

As long as the ashes of the deceased person remain in the Ganga, the person continues to enjoy happiness in worthy places for thousands of years.

In the Kurmpuran, 35/31-34, it is said:

Whatever number of years the ashes remain in the Ganga, the departed soul is held in reverence in heaven for thousand times the number. Of all the pilgrimages and of all the rivers, Ganga is considered most holy.

It grants salvation to all, including those that have committed gross sins. Although accessible everywhere to the common man, Ganga is unique at Hardwar, Prayag and Gangasagar. Those who desire salvation, including emotionally downtrodden sinners, there is no better place than the Ganga.

Religious writers also believe that the deceased person’s journey towards the eternal home does not start until the ashes are consigned to the Ganga.

Another belief about consigning ashes to the Ganga and other sacred rivers is that the water from these rivers is used extensively to irrigate large tracts of land along the river. Since the rivers keep flowing and parting with nutrients that they carry in the water, the nutrient content reduces.

Since bones are constituted of phosphates, the ashes consigned to the rivers increase the phosphate content of the water that irrigates fields. Phosphates are essential ingredients for growing grains. With the irrigation water, phosphates are passon on to the fileds and the crops. The ultimate purpose of ensuring that the elements of the body return to nature after death is achieved.

Think it over.

The person, not larger than the thumb, dwelling within, always dwelling in the heart of man, is perceived by the heart, the thought, the mind; they who know it become immortal- Svetasvatara Upanishad

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