We are all aware of the Great War where the demon King of Mahisha, Mahishasura was slain by the Goddess Durga. These days of war had a lot more going into it than just one complete slash of the buffalo demon’s head.
It is interesting to notice that two aspects of the female energy are worshipped during this time of 9 days. On one end its the fiercest form of the Goddess coming forth to slay one of the worst enemies of mankind and devas while on the other end she is worshipped as a coy little girl, yet to be married.
But lets get to the story of Mahishasura first. Kambasuran who later got the title of Mahishasura ruled the kingdom of Mahisha. After having performed tapasya, he asked Brahma for a boon which was granted. This rendered him almost immortal for no man could kill him. He would die only in the hands of a woman, one who had equal power as him. With this confidence, he plundered the common people off their wealth and disturbed the rhishis when they did their puja and constantly troubled the devas. This was done with the help of his sons Sumbhan and Nisumbhan and his brother Durgamanasura.
The first to die in the Great War is Durgamanasura who is slain by the Goddess on the first day of the war, in the form of Mahalakshmi. Durga takes on the forms of Nava Durga during the next 8 days to slay the buffalo demon.
During this time she takes the form of:
Vana durga (The goddess of the forests),
Chulighai Durga (Consort of Tripurantaka Shiva),
Jatavetaka Durga(she calms the fiery side(ughra) of Murugan when he was just born),
Jwala durga (she defeats another asura called Pandasura),
Shanti Durga (she calms Shiva when he is insulted by Daksha who performs the yajna without inviting him)
Sabari Durga (she advices Arjuna to surrender to Lord Shiva the hunter, in the story of Kiratarjuniya, and finally wins him the Pashupatastra in the Mahabharata)
Deepa Durga (she signifies the flame that is worshipped by all yogis when their kundalini fails to rise)
Asuri Durga (she brings out the Amrit from the churning ocean and gives it to Vishnu in the form of Mohini.)
Lavana Durga (She helps Rama get the astra that will kill Lavana, a general in the army of Ravana. The astra is an arrow with has a trishul at the end of it.)
During the time of Navaratri, Durga is worshipped to kill all evil, Lakshmi gives wealth to all the poor people Mahishasura had plundered and Saraswati gives knowledge to all so that they can start their lives again. The Goddess fought the battle during the day and went into tapasya during the night. Its during this time she receives the Shankha and chakra from Vishnu, the trishul from Shiva, The Vel(spear) from Murugan, and the sword and arrow from Chamunda. Its finally of Vijaya Dasami day that Durga finally slays Mahishasura and his two sons and vanquishes the asura army.
Markhandeya Rishi adds more to the 9 days of Navaratri. He directs women to worship the Goddess in various forms each day.
On day 1: as a 2-year-old child the Goddess is worshipped in the form of Kumari.
On day 2: as a 3-year-old child the Goddess is worshipped in the form of Thrimurti.
On day 3: as a 4-year-old child the Goddess is worshipped in the form of Kalyani.
On day 4: as a 5-year-old child the Goddess is worshipped in the form of Rohini.
On day 5: as a 6-year-old child the Goddess is worshipped in the form of Kaligha.
On day 6: as a 7-year-old child the Goddess is worshipped in the form of Chandika.
On day 7: as a 8-year-old child the Goddess is worshipped in the form of Sambhavi.
On day 8: as a 9-year-old child the Goddess is worshipped in the form of Durga devi.
On day 9: as a 10-year-old child the Goddess is worshipped in the form of Subhadra.
This is called Kanya Puja, which ensures that young girls will get married into good families. With this we come to the end of Navaratri celebrations.
25 comments:
Hi Kavitha,
For the consumption of the common man, there is an age old saying, “Kala akshar bhains barabar,” i.e., “(for an illiterate) a black leter is equal to a buffalo”. And a question is commonly asked: Akal bari ki bhains? That is, “Which is bigger - brain or buffalo?” Of course, there is yet another saying, to the effect, “Despite reading books after books, no one could become Pundit/ Only the one who can read the two and a half letters of ‘prem’ (equivalent in Hindi of ‘love’) becomes one!”
Also, Mira Bai, a poet queen in Rajasthan and an ardent devotee of “Krishna,” generally observed about God’s ways that the learned remain beggars while fools always ruled!”
With the above-stated in mind, and the basic principle of Yoga as the universal design, one could perhaps read between the lines the communication in the story about “slaying of Mahishasura by Ma Durga”, the essence of Moon that is housed at the top of human head at ‘Sahasrara chakra’, which needs to be reached by the dormant major part of "supreme knowledge" that is housed at the 'Mooladhar chakra'as the essence of Mars, the believable link between man and the Creator or Goddess as Mother of the universe, after of course clearing the intervening hurdles…and thus requiring Yogic exercises for reaching zero thoughts, or even actions not related with day-to-day life towards fulfilling the needs of the physical body...
Kavita,I always wonder why the gods kept on giving boons to the devils $ demons.Perhaps to underline the importance of Good people?
Hello Anilji,
History and mythology have been twisted and turned through the ages. Demons do not always signify being bad. But they reflect the possibility of a devil nature in everyone.
Ravana, very conveniently painted off as a demon who abducted Sita, has been given a very very bad character in recent versions of the Ramayana. But everyone fails to see that Ravana was a very ardent devotee of Lord Shiva, such that there were none like him. He was a good man, his bhakti for Shiva was commendable. The story of Ravana Anugrahamurthy tells us how much faith he had in Lord Shiva. He is known to have cut his hand and pulled out his veins and played on it like a veena in praise of the Lord.
It was the insult on his sister that aggravated him. Hence he abducted Sita, but he never touched her. He respected her, but never touched her even once. In fact it was Rama who doubted his wife even after she went through agni sakshi.
Ravana among a few other so called demons were initially very good people, but situation/boons turned their minds and corrupted them. They should not be taken literally but conceptually where we as human beings should realize that we have a demon in all of us which can get triggered anytime and by anybody.
These are mythological reflections of the human self.
How we wish we get boons from Brahma, and am sure that our weak minds wouldn’t allow us to handle the power of those boons with responsibility.
Getting a boon is not easy, definitely not in Kaliyuga, and keeping it is even tougher. We humans are incapable of it for if we did, there would be no difference between a demon and us.
Regds
Kavitha
Hi Kavitha. Anilji…
The name of Mother, Durga, is based on the word Durg, meaning ‘Fort’. Thus the ‘locks’, believably designed by Her, are normally invincible – getting stronger and stronger as energy from “mooladhar” moves up towards the ‘Ajna Chakra’, the “third eye” of Shiva, having before that to cross the strongest physical fort, “Vishuddhi Chakra”, located in the throat (essence of planet Venus) that acts as the Fort of the Guru Shukracharya, represented by Ravana the rakshasha (‘raksha’ meaning defence) in Tretayuga in his believably invincible fort in the island of ‘Lanka’…
Rakshashas, viz. Rahu and Shukra act as hindrances in the path of ‘seekers’ of ‘Truth’/ ‘Absolute Truth’…
As per the ancient ‘Hindu’ realization the ‘Absolute Truth’ signifies the existence of a component of the immortal Creator (a point or ‘zero’ related with zero in every aspect) within each illusory or deceptive exterior form, which result in the disparity or apparent hierarchy in all aspects of ‘Nature’ as per design (for the drama) – but in a dormant state within each form, unless awakened to some extent, naturally or otherwise through three-in-one exercise…
For them ‘Truth’, as different from the ‘Absolute Truth’, was any phenomenon in the drama that apparently was unrelated with time…Therefore, needing at any time first a change in mental attitude of any character, i.e., firm belief/ faith in the finding of the ‘wise’ ancients, and then seeking the ‘Truth’ within one personally also, in order to be able to enjoy/ criticize one’s own or other's role in the drama properly, just as we enjoy/ criticize all dramas scripted and enacted by ‘imperfect’ humans in the ‘present’, which was anyway anticipated by the ancients even in the apparent remote ‘past’!
The rise of ‘kundalini’ or the energy/ supreme information stored in the essence of planet Mars at ‘mooladhar’ or the basic house is generally compared with the raising of its hood by a king cobra who otherwise normally remains coiled up…
Although, as a young boy, I had seen snake charmers perform on the road-side and also one or two snakes that had by chance entered our residence in New Delhi, it was in the northeast that I happened to come across many varieties of colourful snakes and a black fat python too in the wild and got educated a bit more about them when I encountered an ex-employee of a pharmaceutical firm that dealt with venom for use in medicines…
He had left his job and took training from some “sadhus” in the Northwestern part of the Himalayas before establishing his own venom collection works at his home town in Nowgaon…
He told me how snakes are kept in cylindrical cane baskets and before putting the lid the top is covered with a piece of cloth - for a snake wouldn’t attempt to push the cloth to come out, and it wouldn’t normally bite through clothes…He showed me many venomous snakes whenever he caught some and happened to be near my residence in Guwahati…
He also showed one of his photographs in which he had the tails of two snakes, one in each hand while major parts of both had disappeared inside his body through his mouth – he explained that it is just a matter of practice as a snake normally wouldn’t open its mouth once it enters the mouth and on its own manages to make way inside the body like it does inside a hole on the ground…
The above could perhaps help in realizing how activation of ‘kundalini’ is perhaps similar – needing ‘just lifting the veil over the mooladhar’ for the energy to rise up on its own! Of course, it is easier said than done! Maybe Deepa Durga, or perhaps energizing the ‘Ajna chakra’ with the perception of the light of an external flame, after staring at it for some time, could help (under proper guidance from a known Yogi only)…
Kavitha,The character of Ravana always interests me.He has authored a beautiful "Shivatandava" stotra.Besides that he had studied medicinal plants in great details & has written a book on him.I don't remember the name of this though.As you had correctly pointed out there are traces of bad in all of us.Are the so called gods exception to this?
Hi Kavitha, Anilji...
Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh are considered as Gods in physical forms - as ‘models’ or ‘reflections’ of the one and the only ‘perfect’ Formless being, i.e., Vishnu on Ananta(nag) or Sheshanag – that have 100% efficiency only at the beginning of a ‘Satyuga’ (which appears 1000 times, or maybe 1080 as I believe it, in a repeated cycle of four Yugas - in different forms and names and with relatively reduced efficiency - during a day in the unending life of the Creator)…
The ‘Hindu Philosophy’ indicates all physical forms generally to be inferior to the Formless Creator, who alone is ‘perfect’ - believably unborn and unending or immortal…except at the beginning of the much awaited Satyuga…
“Krishna” the “Yogiraj”, Vishnu's reincarnatin in Dwaperyuga, in Gita, indicates man to be an inverted tree, having his roots in the sky…In the present day terms perhaps man could be visualized as an inverted coffee percolator, where like the filtered-coffee, as essence of the coffee seeds (knowledge stored at ‘mooladhar’), slowly, drop by drop, rises to the top of the head (‘sahasrara chakra’) over a period of time, if the strainer is kept properly cleaned from time to time!
A good one. But some of these stories keep changing in each state, I guess. But, u do a great job.
There are two types of men, extrovert and introvert…The former engages oneself only in study of the ‘material world’, or only that which becomes evident with the help of the five physical senses. And, because of the apparently imperfect matching of the outcome with the reality, on account of apparent avoidance of ‘truth’ by the former, the latter believes in an in-depth study, like diving deeper (in the ocean of knowledge) to reach the pearls (of wisdom)…
I have one question from Anilji: If one of his near relative/ friend is afflicted with some systemic ailment, say, and you have the option of an allopath at high cost; or a homoeopath/ an ‘ayurvaid’, who are relatively more economical; and a spiritual personality, say Jesus Christ, who could cure one free, just with a touch, who would he approach?
In this connection, I recall an incident narrated to me by a friend. His father sometimes suffered severe attacks due to presence of stones in his kidney. However, being scared he wouldn’t agree to undergo surgical operation, and allopathic medicines had proved of no use so far…One day one of his friends came to him, when he was in fact experiencing severe pain, and gave him some powder passed on to him by a wandering ‘sadhu’ who, satisfied after a meal at his home, had given it on hearing about his friend’s dilemma…He gulped it readily saying that even if acted as poison it would help him get rid of the long suffering! Early next morning he found small granules ejected as he urinated, and he experienced bliss as he was completely cured!
Hi Kavitha, Anilji…
Doesn’t it look like it was designed or so scripted that the sadhu carried his cure in the form of a powder that God alone knew what chemical it contained, for I am sure the sadhu hadn’t access to a multi-million dollar lab to get it tested from, and that he only ‘acted as a medium’…
Animals - who do not have the ‘good fortune’ to read in ‘Public Schools’, like us humans considered as such today, or for that matter any ‘Municipal School’ even - seem to know better what they should eat and what they shouldn’t, except perhaps those who are influenced by us egoistic humans (“A man is known from the company he keeps!”)…
Even small insects/ birds sometimes act dead for they know that predators wouldn’t normally eat dead animals, and the scavenger birds/ bacteria etc. would consume only the really dead ones, without waiting for a “death certificate” from a doctor:-) And even in the recent past, we reportedly had Yogis who could revive the dead! But, in the ‘present’ or ‘kalikal’, thanks perhaps to time, such personalities or souls, like dinosaurs, have become almost obsolete…perhaps waiting for the right time!
Continuing, of course, it is possible that the Yogis perhaps could revive only those who were “clinically-dead”, i.e., whose heart had stopped beating, but they weren’t “brain-dead” yet, a phenomenon comparable to a "man-made" two-wheeler vehicle where there is a provision of spare fuel (energy) in the “reserve” just needing setting of a lever in the correct position!...
I happened to approach a sadhu of such a repute from Varanasi at Vashistha Ashram, in Guwahati…He switched on and handed over to me - to listen for almost 30 minutes - a tape recorder where there were recorded questions and answers in a particular format between him and some relatives of different patients, designed to indicate how he had apparently cured patients suffering from some believably “incurable” diseases, using medicines he had prepared…In the meanwhile, of course, I had asked one of his disciples about the competence of the sadhu to revive the dead, he had told me that although he had been serving him for a year, with the specific purpose of learning from him the process, he hadn’t yet seen him do it…
When the sadhu returned, I told him that if I was to take medicines for my wife, why I wouldn’t go to a registered physician (which I had done for years but without any relief, though) instead of going to a ‘spiritual’ person? He replied, a bit irritatingly, that although if I were to ask him to make a bathing ghat at that location on the hill stream, he could do it overnight, but physical problems needed to be treated with physical materials…I have thus remained ignorant, although I had heard from my staff how they had observed the snake charmer (I had mentioned earlier) revive a 12-year-old boy who had turned blue four days after a snake bite by virtually "transferring the poison' to a chicken within a few minutes!
The process, according to the eye-witnesses, just involved vermillion sprinkled on the floor near the location where the almost dead body of the boy lay next to the live chicken. And, a stick in the hand of the performer, which he moved in the air over the boy while chanting some mantras and then pointing its free end, at some stage, at the chicken, which resulted in its toppling over on its back, dead!
Of course, some animal lovers, particularly on the World Animal Day today, could demand the right of the chicken also to live his ‘natural life span’… However, practice of ‘Animal sacrifice’ in certain temples, viz. Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati - and even their regular use as part of human food, after being butchered in abattoirs - or 'human sacrifice’ even in the ‘present’ in certain regions of the generally ‘modern and civilized world’, is in vogue since time immemorial. It is apparently being justified with the explanation that the whole idea of creation is for the evolution of the soul, which has the obligation to pass through 8.4 million animal forms before it can reach the superior most creation or God’s Own (maybe illusory) image, i.e., the human form at a certain initial elevation within the existing hierarchy, with the sole purpose of reaching the Creator Himself during the period of one's stay on earth!
“Kanya Pujan”, i.e, worship of girls, during Navaratri, before they attain puberty, generally on the eighth day in north India, with the background belief of essences of nine planets going in to the formation of human structure as the model of the universe - eight representing the ones that interact to reflect the apparent hierarchy and also physical action in eight directions, and the ninth representing inaction or rest, i.e., the dormant part of supreme energy/ knowledge responsible for rise and fall in elevation of internal energy/ knowledge, because of its percentage increasing as one moves from Satyuga to Kaliyuga, as a part of the universal design, and similarly reflected in the human model, which is perfect when it is unborn or in the womb and decreases in efficiency with time as the model matures…The model-like behaviour of man is also perhaps reflected in the use of dolls/ gollu in south Indian houses during Navaratri…
ravana was a great shiva bhakta, but he could not touch sita because he had a curse on him by some rishi or somebody; i forget who.
it says that ravana cannot touch any woman, except his own wife, without that woman's explicit permission. he will immediately be turned into ashes.
well, if only he did not have that curse... he may have touched sita.
i don't think bhakti alone can save anybody; i know quite a few people in stories and in real life who have tremendoes devotion. but when it comes to real life and actions, they do all kinds of evil or bad things etc etc... so?
well, well, he tried persuading sita every evening till rama came to rescue her.
i guess, vibhisana is the only noble character (human being) in that epic.
Although I have narrated this incident elsewhere also, I would like to repeat it here in very brief…It was 8th December 1981, I had booked my flight to Imphal from Guwahati…I was to be dropped at the airport by a friend on way to his work and I was ready with my brief-case packed up to go by 10 AM…and my wife had decided to serve me heavy breakfast so that I could skip my lunch…
My then under 11-year-old daughter suddenly came to me and enquired if my flight was cancelled? I was surprised at the question and told her that the flight was at 1:30 PM and that my friend would take me to the airport…After I had breakfast my friend arrived, we had tea together and left…
By 12 PM I was there to read to my surprise on the notice board that the plane was expected to take off later than the scheduled time of 10 AM from New Delhi due to some mechanical fault! Even when the plane arrived it was announced that it would return to New Delhi, skipping the Guwhati-Imphal-Guwahati leg!
I was surprised how my daughter had received the message regarding the cancellation almost instantaneously at the ETD of the plane from New Delhi? I later recalled that just three years ago that day my mother had expired in New Delhi! And, I had forgotten all about the date as, according to the ritualistic practice, it was my elder brother who was supposed to look after the related annual rites!!
This incident perhaps was one of the major ones I experienced during that period when I was in the northeast region for just over nine years (!), which attracted my attention to the ‘spiritual’ aspect of life…
Yes, Mr. Maybe you are right that it is well known that at any time, irrespective of the Yuga concerned, even in one family, the natures of two siblings might be diametrically opposite…And, the Yogis or ancient ‘scientists’ after in-depth studies found the behaviour of any individual to be related with the governing planet, determined from the time of birth etc., for the concerned…
Powerful and yet selfless ‘Suryavanshi’ kings, generally, were related with the Sun, while persons related with planet Venus or Shukra, though, were also physically powerful, but egoistic, selfish and most of the time devotees of Shiva (the model of earth that holds the gold and other riches), and apparently enemies of the persons with Sun as the governing planet (as also in the relationship demonstrated by Arjun-Duryodhan in Dwaperyuga)…
Vibhishan had a similar nature to that of Hanuman – both were perhaps related to planet Mars (related with ‘zero’ or the meekest among the meek, the detached Formless Creator) as their governing planet…
Kavitha, one would perhaps find the message of the story of slaying of Mahishasur expressed in the saying, “Tamaso ma jyotirgmaya…” i.e., “Lead me from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge…” Or “Lead the kindly light.”
“A man is known by the company he keeps.” It is said that if one were to walk along with a river (a Guru or a superior person) one would eventually reach the ocean (of knowledge) some day! The Hindu mythology, however, indicates existence of two Cosmic Gurus at any time, besides the third, the detached Formless being (through its association with Mars as the link between man and God): Brihaspati (Jupiter) as the Guru of the selfless (devtas) and Shukracharya (Venus) as the Guru of the selfish (rakshashas), similar to the two perhaps most revered rivers of the “Hindus”, Ganga and Yamuna, that have their confluence near the holy region of Kashi, at Triveni, Allahabad, besides the third believable dried up river, Saraswati, to flow thereafter as one, Ganga (“Satyameva Jayate!”), which eventually drains in to the Bay of Bengal…Of course, it needed valiant efforts, or ‘tapasya’, on part of Bhagirath, the grandson of King Sagar [or literally the sea, whose 60,000 sons, like dried up tributaries, were ‘turned to ashes’ by a sage] to make Ganga descend on earth from moon (perhaps thus also describing as a part of the grand design, the activation of “kundalini” - there believably are three rivers or ‘nadis’ within the human body that carry energy between the tail-bone end and the brain!)…
Similarly thus, for integrated knowledge, as per the communication in ‘Nature’, one would require both types of Gurus, as one also finds described in the ‘Hindu’ mythological stories regarding engagement - say for example in the Tretayuga - of sage Vashishatha for advice on spiritual matters and sage Vishwamitra for day-to-day matters by the Dashrath-like (literally the one whose chariot is drawn by ten horses, like the ten handed Ma Durga) ‘suryavanshi kings’ who copied the believable sun-like expansion of their empire in 10 stages, [or ‘Dashavatar of Vishnu,’ that describe the story of the Formless reaching perfection at the end of Satyuga after having started from the beginning of Kaliyuga], through Ashvamedha Yagya. The greater the number of the Yagyas performed by a king, the more the believable reflection of his ‘shakti’ or power…
At Kashi, the believable original abode of Adi Shiva, the ‘perfect being’, there is a bathing ghat named “Dashashvamedha ghat”, where the main arati is performed in the evening, perhaps to indicate the ‘shakti’ or ‘Sati’ related with earth or Shiva (as His original consort, and consequent to her death as Parvati or moon!)…
useful information about navarathri. thank you
Lighting up diyas or earthen lamps twenty days from Dashami on the new moon day, as a part of the continuing cycle, on Deepavali or ‘Kali Puja’ as it is called in Bengal, also is indicative of the enlightenment in the masses - as it believably happens at the beginning of Satyuga - with each diya representing an enlightened individual!
An earthen lamp believably is a model of the human form, with body made of earth that holds ‘spiritual’ energy in the form of mustard oil… [The mustard seeds are used by housewives - as a technique learnt from tantriks - for drawing away ‘evil spirits’ from an individual by revolving the hand over one’s head while holding a small quantity of mustard seeds in it and throwing those in water, the universal solvent]. The wick, made from spun cotton wool, acts like the spinal chord, and lifts energy in the form of drops of oil to the top of the wick to dispel the darkness of ignorance!
Welcome, Shri t.r.c.,
Although, superficially, it is on a very petty matter, I would like to narrate another incident that occurred in Guwahati…
It was perhaps in the summer of the year 1983 and I was thoroughly bored with life, with my wife’s deteriorating health condition on one hand, and on the other hand, the exposure to the ‘spiritual world’ that virtually descended heavily upon me to distract my attention from my assigned tasks… On one such a day, my wife asked me to bring some two petty items on my return home from office…I told to her irritation that that if SHE reminded me, I would bring those!!
It was 6 P.M. when I was home bound on foot so that I could look into every shop to remind me what those two items were! Fortunately, I recalled the wicks for the kerosene lamp, which I purchased immediately. However, I couldn’t recall the second one, having virtually walked for 15 minutes or so to the end of the shops that were located on both sides of the road. And, when I had almost reached the T-junction where I was to turn right towards my residence, I was thoroughly frustrated with my memory and gave up, with the thought that if it was important I would come to the market again…At that very moment of ‘surrender’, I heard just one word “koni” (in Assamese, meaning “egg”) as if spoken by someone close to my left ear!!! And, the shop was just two shops ahead of the junction!!!
I thanked HER for saving me from the likely embarrassment!!!
Kavitha, the above-cited incident carried a very deep meaning for me, although some others, to whom I narrated the incident, viz. my wife, saw nothing great in it and perhaps thought I had gone nuts (!); and some even suggested that someone near me at that time might have spoken to someone else nearby! I had a definite feeling as if someone over my head, and close to my left ear, had uttered those words…and that if someone was so closely interested, even to remind me about one of my petty affairs, then perhaps I needn’t worry! Of course, on the other hand I wondered why my wife’s health continued to deteriorate till she was diagnosed to have had SLE, a systemic disease, in December ’83, confirmed in Jan ’84, which at first made me rush her to New Delhi by April - for treatment under a private doctor as the concerned doctor at AIIMS refused to admit her - and also my return by September by the time she was gradually back again on her own two feet with a stronger spirit thanks to the dedicated eforts on the part of the doctor - to continue to live for almost 15 years more thereafter under regular medical supervision…
I would like to add that I had known that lines on her left palm, relative to the right one, were much more abnormal, and therefore we had to surrender according to the adage, “What can’t be cured must be endured!”…
Thus God’s ways remain mysterious to an average man due to lack of overall knowledge…and therefore perhaps SHE has been educating me - maybe because a Mother after all is a Mother!
To clarify the above loud thought, as per “Hindu philosophy”, Ganesha the favourite son of Mother Parvati is associated with the “unborn” Creator and is believably housed within each human form as the essence of planet Mars. Thus each individual could perhaps be visualized as one of the innumerable forms of Parvati, i.e., Shiva’s or Earth’s “shakti” or energy as the essence of Moon, that reflect the apparent hierarchy in ‘Nature’ from near zero to nearly 25% maximum achievable in Kaliyuga, say – maybe dormant and therefore untapped, and needing only the realization to descend upon one, who is a “seeker”, through whatever medium as in the case of Hanuman, the ardent devotee of Lord Rama in Tretayuga, perhaps only when the time is ripe and the Mother so wills it…as it is indicated in the stories about the relationships between Parvati& Ganesha in Satyuga who Vishnu-like held, besides the mace, conch-shell, chakra and lotus also; Sita& Hanuman the mace holder in Tretayuga who could burn the “golden Lanka” with his tail that was put on fire by Ravana’s security guards (like comets that have tail and are capable of burning forests on earth as observed by astronomers from time to time); Draupadi& Bhima the mace holder in Dwaperyuga with relatively lesser capacity than Hanuman; and so on similarly expected in Kaliyuga too between two such designated characters, which only future will tell!
Kavitha, while talking of "Dashami" or number 10, I forgot to mention “Dashanan” or the egoistic, “ten headed”, Ravana the character that some people find quite interesting…and also a few miscellaneous other thoughts…as below...
Whatever might be the actual reason for it, the believably best footbal player today wears a shirt that has number 10, copying the 'black (“Krishna”, in Sanskrit) pearl', Pele’s shirt’s number (and in Gita, Krishna says to the effect that the whole Nature is copying Him, maybe indirectly)!
The British PM lives in 10 Downing Street! But, the number in IPC (Indian Penal Code) indicates a bad character (in the childhood, Krishna believably stole butter, and used to trouble young gopis – mischievously broke their water-pots, perhaps, of course, it could be His symbolic representation as an “agent of death” as claimed by Him in Gita)!
And in the game of Cricket, although there are eleven players, one always remains “Not out” (that is, immortal - it is believed that God can appear at any time in any form or “Atithi Devo Bhava”), and the innings is considered wrapped up when 10 batsmen are “Out” (representing the 10 believable mortal forms of Vishnu the immortal during one day in His life of over 4 billion years, perhaps)!
However, the two digits, 0 & 1 used in the number, form the basis of the Binary system used in the computer technology that has helped making the apparently wide world, from human point of view, a small place, almost a virtual dot as it believably, really, is in the apparent infinite “make believe universe”, which itself is 'zero or a dot, as per the ‘wise’ ancients!
Kavitha, ancient "Hindus" have gone to the depth to explain the 'Truth'... One can learn even from a money lender how to make 1+1 = 11.. However, only Formless Creator can perhaps tell you how He made 1 from 0, at the first instance, that multiplied with other 1s & 2s etc. over time (believably zero for Him), to result in infinity that we humans apparently perceive eternally, as we do even today because of 'apparent time'(believably because of illusion that is “Maya”)!
There apparently exist such ‘rare personalities’ that make materials, such as ashes or rings etc., appear as if by magic from thin air (maybe, in fact, as a trick, a sleight of hand - particularly in Kaliyuga, which is notorious for its lowest reach)!
However, with the background belief of all perceptions to be results of illusion, stories on the experiences of ancient Yogis, at any time, viz. walking on the surface of water, flying in air, disappearing from one place to reappear at another remote place, etc., perhaps indicate the limitless flight of imagination of the Creator, such that nothing is “impossible” for Him, as is perhaps also reflected through the popular statement credited to Napoleon Bonaparte (?), to the effect, “The word impossible is found in the dictionary of fools!”
Interesting post and interesting comments. Wondering why Navratri and Vijaya Dashmi is celebrated near the middle of Dakhinayana path and not near the end of Dakshinayana? The principles of yoga would match better if it was near to Dakshinaya (21th dec)when "Devyana" starts. Devyana is the path where Sun "starts" its journey towards North. It passes over Mula nakshatra corresponding to Muladhara chakra at the base of vertebral column (Mula nakshatra as Muladhara chakra and it is lowest point of milky way on the ecliptic - Mula nakshatra as Shiva and Ganga flowing out of his head is the milkyway). The Mahishasur mardini (killer of darkness) and killing of ravana would certainly fit better at Dakshinayana when duration of day starts increasing. Koojagiri Purnima that is celebrated soon after vijayadashmi would make better sense if it is celebrated just before 21st dec i.e when Sun is in Scorpio / Saggi rashi and moon is in Vrishabha rashi (exalted moon in astrology). It would have longer night and moon is seen (without clouds) for a longer time in the night !
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