1.16.2008

Lakulisa - Founder of Pasupata Shaivism

On the road to Champaner, Guijarat: Lakulisa Temple

At the foothills of the great Kalikadevi temple at Pavagadh Gujarat, there is a sprawling peaceful lake dotted with temples displaying the splendor of rural Gujarat. On the way to Champaner this picturesque landscape produces one of the finest architectures both Islamic and Hindu.

Driving down during the monsoon time can indeed change the mood of the land such that it almost feels like divinity descended on earth in a chariot of mist. And here among rocky hillsides strewn with huge boulders lie one of India's most ancient temples now in ruins - Lakulisa temple. This temple dates back to the 10th century though the cult of Lakulisa existed well into the 1 cen.A.D and has been mentioned the Mahabharata. This delapidated temple holds the iconography of Lord Shiva thought it houses Lakulisa within its walls. Among its very rare and fine sculptures one can see Dakshinamurthy Shiva, Ganesha and Gajantaka Shiva. Most of the upper half of the temple has fallen off and merged with the surrounding boulders leaving standing walls with intricate sculptures to show the original spendor of this great cult icon.

Lakulisa was the founder of Pashupata Shaivism which was one of the oldest and prominent Shaivite schools that existed in the early 1 cen A.D, though dating it is still uncertain. Lakulisa's school of Pashupata Shaivism originated at Kayavarohan in Gujarat and extended to Payar in Kashmir and Orissa in the east. It later spread far and wide and penetrated into Tamil Nadu in the 7th to 14th cen A.D.

Lakulisa's images are found all over India indicating that his cult was very well established. The Pashupatas were ascetics
and were followers of the Bhakti movement. Lakulisa was almost considered an incarnate of Lord Shiva during his time. He is represented as a saint, teacher, yogi, and a man of divinity, very similar to the Buddha when it came to depiction in scupture. His teachings are codified in the Lakulisa Siddhanta, while in his images he is represented in Dharmachakrapravartana mudra with a Lakuta (stick) in one arm. His main desciples were Kausika, Gargya, Mitraka and Rusta.

Among may such temples and images, Lakulisa can be found in person in the ruined Bhairava temple on the banks of the Gangua river near Bhubaneswar where he is depicted as a four armed Lakulisa with the Jatamukuta and snake, very similar in appearance to Shiva Dakshinamurthy. Alternatively he is also found in the Orissa State Museum at Bhubaneswar.
What was this cult all about? Kaundinya in one of his commentaries on the Pashupata Sutras says that Lord Shiva taking the form of a Brahman as an incarnate at Kayavatarana, went on foot to ujjain and taught his doctrine to Bhagavat Kushika. The Pashupata doctrine was revealed by Lakulisa, the last of the 28 incarnations of Shiva. The worship of Shiva included strange practices which involved bathing in sand and holy ash thrice a day and living in isolation. I would suspect its quite close to our current day Nagas. What ever their practices and whether it conformed to the society at large, this once popular cult lost its dynamic presence and ceased to exist till today in its original known form.

What remains is a ruined temple dedicated to the last incarnate of Lord Shiva - Lakulisa, along the road to Champaner.

References: Religious Beliefs and Practices of North India During the Early Mediaeval by Vibhuti Bhushan Mishra

47 comments:

JC said...

The Hindu Philosophy of human form as the superior most animal form, out of 8.4 million through which a soul must pass to reach the most evolved state, coiuld be called its essence realized by the wise who would have mooted the idea of Shiva, the Supreme Soul's presence within all life forms...symbolically...

I give below a reaction to an article in 'my newspaper'...
The SECOND OPINION article, Why VIP stands for Very Injurious Parasite by Jug Suraiya (toi 16/1) shows that human life is symbolic. But, it is like the grass that can’t be eaten by all asses - and get digested too, unless one has the inherent capacity to go to the roots of ‘Creation’ by a Formless Being!



“Kala akshar bhains barabar”, is an old 'Indian' saying, therefore, although it is perhaps like playing ‘(Saraswati) Veena in front of (Black) Buffalo’, or Latin & Greek for present day Europeans, I present ‘my’ views, for toi claims to present all divergent views ;-)



You have to be a special ass (like the hardy one found in the Rann of Kuttchha, say), the ‘chosen one’, like ‘Neelamber Krishna’, the ‘Natkhat Nandlal’ who ruled the ‘Kaliyuga’ the ‘dark age’ from ‘west India’ (Gujarat) when Homo sapiens apparently had their roots in the ‘Dark Continent’ that is Africa; or Christ in the ‘west’ who apparently rules in the Christian Era the fag end of Kaliyuga that, in fact, is the beginning of ‘churning’ of Bhavsagar that is Earth, or dance of Shiva the Nataraja ;-)



One could also read VIP as VI-P the ‘sixth planet’, where ‘V’ stands for Vishnu teh sudershan-chakra-dhari, reflected by planet Saturn, the Nadbindu or the Supreme Soul, and also the friend of Saturn, Venus the poisonous planet, the creator of hurdle or V for ‘Vighna-karta’, whose essence is believably housed in the bottle-neck-like throat of humans as models of the universe that is God, the ‘adam’s apple’, the cause of unhappiness in humans today :-)



And ‘I’ stands for the numero uno, representing the ‘V’ also for ‘Vighana-harta’ the trouble-shooter, that is planet Mars, whose essence is believably housed at the tail-bone end of human structure, called the basic energy or ‘mooladhar’ :-)



Numbers lucky 7 & 8 - related with Peetamber Krishna - are represented by essences of Earth-Moon (Shiva-Parvati who evolved at the end of Satyuga to ‘Hindus!) that were beyond VI-P the six planets up to Venus, from Mars in Kaliyuga :-)

JC said...

Reflections of ‘Krishna’, the representative of ‘Vishnu’, can be seen in a black-board too (in essence the cycle can be seen as a ‘teacher’ writing something on it during one hour, and the next ‘teacher’ erases it during its period in order to write something new!) as ‘I’ recapitulated it at a certain age only when ‘Mother Kamakhya’ the unseen invited me to seek Her in the eighties. Although, ‘I’ had been seeing it since 1945 when ‘I’ had joined class II straightaway in a school that was locted ‘coincidentally or by design’ adjacent to ‘Laxmi-Narayan Temple’ in New Delhi, popularly known as ‘Birla Mandir’ though – to Class 18, that is graduation in science in 1958, and finally in Civil Engineering in the year 1962 from Birla Engineering College, perhaps ‘by design’, having joined it in the year a Saraswati Temple in the said institute’s premises was declared open!
Interestingly, at a certain point in time, being generally advised to seek ‘Krishna’ within the self, ‘I’ realized that although Krishna was Devki’s eighth and only lucky surviving child, and ‘I’ am the fifth but now the third living child out of Devki-like eight delivered by my mother too. ‘I’ was told that two siblings before me lived only to see the sunlight for under 2 years!
And, interestingly both my parents, like Shiva-Parvati, belonged to the Himalyan hills (but of Uttar Pradesh and now Uttrakhand), and my elder sister and ‘I’, both, were however born in the ‘present day’ Himachal Pradesh, in Shimla when it was in the Punjab, literally the ‘five waters’! Shimla was then the ‘summer capital’ of British India, located due north of New Delhi, the capital of ‘India’ since December 1911 – shifted from Calcutta (Kolkata), in erstwhile Bengal, because almost a century ago the state had got disturbed due to its partition in 1906, like it is disturbed today also because of various reasons. Earlier the major reason was East Bengal’s initially becoming East Pakistan after partition in 1947, and renamed later as an independent country, as Bangaldesh in December 1971…
And, ‘I’ learnt that being born on 5/9, the Teacher’s Day, at a certain hour after 5 PM, my ‘rashi’ is ‘Makar’ that literally means ‘crocodile’, that Krishna claims as His most evolved form, out of all aquatic life forms (vide the Gita – Chapter X)! And, so on…
Hindus therefore posed the eternally unanswered question: Who am I? And, man, or the soul within, is searching and researching the ‘Absolute Truth’ since eternity and apparently getting lost in the Truths’ that in realiaty are believed to be ‘Untruths’ or ‘Maya’ that is illusion - according to the ‘wise ancients’!

Now ‘I’ know why ‘I’ was scared of history of illusory ‘modern India’, for now ‘I’ am evolved as a student of His Stories, that is, History
:-)

Dr.Anil Joshi said...

Kavitha,The first photograph really depicts Divinity descending on earth through the chariot of mist!!
Was not knowing anything about Lakulisa.Would like to know more on the 28 incarnations of lord Shiva

JC said...

Kavithaji, look at your own face in the mirror – you will find one out of billions of reflections of Shiva in the 'present' tht was 'past!

A pyramid at its base can accommodate infinite reflections – but its apex only one!

JC said...

For visualization of the nirakar Nadbindu’s, or formless Creator’s, dream, imagine that before the peak or summit was achieved at the end of Satyuga, that is, before Krishna’s perfect spiritual form Shiva alone appeared, Brahma - represented in a model form by the four corners of the pyramid as also its four sides or faces as Brahma is believed to have – would have continued to appear, to its infinite models in animal forms located at the base.
As the time would have passed, with the rise of the pyramid’s base the numbers of animals would have gone on reducing and thus Brahma would have continued to appear growing progressively smaller in size although always having four faces – till only Nirkar would have remained!

Kavitha Kalyan said...

Anilji,

I am not sure about the the previous 27 incarnations of Lord Shiva, but yes, the various forms of Shiva do count up to 27. There have been no references made to name the previous 27 in any of the books i have read so far. I am not sure whether it is safe to assume the previous incarnations to be Nataraja, Bhikshatana, Tripurantaka, Neelakanta Shiva, etc.

Joshi uncle,
If I had to look into the mirror and see Lord Shiva in myself I would be most happy. But it would not be a very thrilling feeling if the world around me saw the form of Shiva Bhairava expressed on my face!

Jokes apart, yes there is only only supreme though there may be a lot of expressions of the same self.

Regds
Kavitha

JC said...

With the background information that ‘Hindus’ used the lunar cycle for reckoning of time, and therefore as the orbit of moon is 27.3 days, the astronomers/ astrologers divided the sky (one of the panchabhootas of Bhootnath Shiva) into 27 or 28 parts such that the moon appears to take approximately one day to pass through each of the ‘nakshatras’ during a month. Each part of such division is identified by the prominent star or stars in it.
In view of the above, one could perhaps visualize the 27 or 28 ‘nakshatras’ as different forms or incarnation of Shiva. Perhaps the wise were able to identify 27 or 28 models of the star(s) in human forms also as incarnation of Shiva…the whole space…
Kavithaji, enlightened Yogis apparently realized each physical form as an image of Shiva, the Formless Being, represented by our universe in physical form as a single entity…They, therefore, on realization of the Truth exclaimed, “Shivoham!”

JC said...

The word ‘Pashupat’ or ‘Pashupati’ could remind a ‘Hindu’ of ‘Gopal’, another name by which Krishna the cowboy of Mathura is called (who eventually ruled from Dwarika), or of Lord Vishnu who is symbolically indicated at the root of the ‘evolution of species’ through his 'dashavatar' or 'ten incarnations'…

Those who have seen the life cycle of a tortoise, the amphibian who lives most of the time in water, but its females come to lay a number of eggs on land, on the sandy beaches in properly dug out holes in apparently secure places from the various predators, (perhaps as recorded by some ‘animal lover’), would have observed how as soon as a young one appears - when the egg is hatched - as part of a natural design it instinctively starts crawling towards the sea with a view to reaching it safely, as fast as its tiny limbs can carry it before it gets grabbed by some hungry predator, a representative of Shiva the Destroyer, on earth or in the sky. In water it feels safer among its own community…
Maybe one can visualize human life also to be its reflection. Only lucky ones are destined to reach the goal…Also noticeable is the ‘Hindu belief’ of man as the most evolved among animals, a true model of God…Most of the 12 zodiac signs, based on Solar cycle, also are symbolically represented by some ‘inferior animal form’…
Now, the tortoise is imagined as the second incarnation of Lord Vishnu the Preserver, who manifested itself so that our earth didn’t sink into the waters that surround most of the parts of the globe. Its shape can perhaps remind one of Jambudweep that was ‘Bharat’ in the beginning. Perhaps Sri Lanka also might similarly help…Hindus however perhaps indicated the similarly sculpted shape of Antarctica, as earth’s base…

However, ‘Hindus’ imagined the Crocodile, the biggest predator, a remarkably wonderful design, as Lord Vishnu’s first incarnartion, His true original reflection or image.

And ‘Krishna’ in the Gita also says that he is the 'agent of death', the Dharmaraj, i.e., the one who wrote the Constitution for the governanace of the entire universe with a view to render semblance of immortality to apparent physical forms eternally – with ‘immortal earth’ as its foundation in the ‘past’ – and now illusory or ‘mithya’ world/ universe that is being reviewed by the ‘Absolute Truth’ or Bhootnath Shiva the Ruler of the past!

Anonymous said...

‘Hindu’ mythological stories might help one, particularly ‘graphic designers’ who are supposed to ‘freak out’, to visualize the ’Truth’ from say Ramayana’s popular character, Hanuman, the ‘flying monkey’ who is particularly worshipped on Tuesdays (Mardi), the day that is related with planet Mars, if one had the background knowledge that human structure is believed to have eight ‘chakras’, or point sources of energy, at different levels from tail-bone end to the head – with essence of Mars believed to be housed at the seat and thus called ‘mooladhar’. Suryavanshi prince, Rama, and Hanuman, are indicated as typical models of Sun & Mars, reflected respectively by colours, White & Orange, the colours that get reflected in the flower that is named ‘Harshringar’, literally ‘Shiva’s ornament’, the only flower that can be offered to Shiva’s idol after it is picked from the ground, considered the natural offering to Earth, realized as the typical model of Formless Shiva, the Pashupatinath, symbolically represented by a Shivlinga!

‘Hindus’ indicated human life as symbolic only – Sita was called formless that is ‘vaidehi’! Poor MF Hussain, because of time, that is, the highlighted Yuga, in ‘Krishnaleela’, being Kaliyuga, literally the ’Dark Age’…thanks to the roots of Homo sapiens believably being in the ‘Dark Continent’!

Anonymous said...

Human back-bone is called ‘Meru-danda’ by ‘Hindu Yogis’. And ‘Meru Town’, located at an altitude around 5000 feet with reference to ‘zero altitude’ considered as the Mean Sea Level (MSL) at Karachi, in Sindh, Pakistan.
The above might help a ‘graphic designer’ to also notice how the ghosts of the Indus Valley Civilization, in Sindh, and the ‘present day’ roots of Homo sapiens in the land of Mount Kenya are disturbed and ‘burning’, as also ‘West Bengal’ in the ‘east’, the land of Ma Kali of ‘red tongue’ ruled symbolically by the’red flag’– where chickens in large numbers are being culled, (an ‘encore’, or a repeat show of what ‘Indians’/ the world saw being performed sometimes ago in the ‘west’ in Maharashtra).
And, the animal wears a red crown and at some time used to announce rising of the source of white sunlight (Saraswati the Goddess of learning in Her white sari)!
A ‘graphic designer’ might be able to throw some light on what to expect from these signs!?

Anonymous said...

I would like to add that after having seen, in ‘North India’, only a widow wearing a white sari, it was a ‘cultural shock’ to me when ‘I’ noticed in the ‘north-eastern region of India’, a large number of women wear white saris in Assam, the ancient land of Ma Kamakhya that is related with the Himalayas and ‘Sati’ the original consort (Shakti or energy) of Adi Shiva or the Ardhanarishwar, when I had reached the state capital Gauhati (now Guwahati/ Dispur) from New Delhi that was Indraprastha once upon a time…

JC said...

In the eighties also, the capital of Assam was called ‘Gauhati’, literally meaning the ‘market of cows’, but renamed subsequently as ‘Guwahati’, the ‘beetle-nut market’...

However, ‘I’ noticed that cow owners mostly were Nepalese and (watery) milk was, therefore, sold by them. They had settled down in the state since long. While most of the meanial jobs, such as that of washermen, ‘pan-wallahs’, vegetable/ fruit sellers, cycle-rickshaw drivers, coolies in Rly stations, and so on, were being performed since long by poor and simple Biharis/ poor Bangladeshis…

The local Assamese were ‘landlords’…who were mostly engaged since long in agriculture: Growing rice, banana, and beetle-nuts etc. Weaving of the famous ‘muga silk’ was being carried out by locals only, at Sualkuchi town, and strictly to the specifications laid down since long for it…whereas tea and timber etc trades was performed by rich owners with labour force from Bihar (now Jharkhand)... and so on...

In short, ‘I’ got an impression that perhaps the locals earlier were apparently a contended lot, perhaps, almost till 1971-72 when influx of Bangladeshi Hindus/ Muslims got started due to apparent ‘political’ circumstances...

Population explosion and demand for ‘material development’ further helped, ‘like fuel to the fire’, in the apparent disturbed conditions that prevail in the state as a whole, since around the year 1979 or so. For we felt that as a result of ‘churning’ by Kali/ Krishna we had arrived there at the apparent beginning of the ‘agitation’ and had been witness for over four years to the ‘churning of the milky ocean’, (in the terminology of Hindu mythology), which had appeared to progressively increase the 'poison' in the environment rapidly with the passage of time…aided by forces from the neighbouring countries - initially from 'west'...

JC said...

Those who are familiar with the water-cycle in ‘India’ created due to ‘churning’ by the ‘panchatatvas’ or ‘panchabhootas’ (earth, air, water, fire, sky that is atmosphere) and the consequent annual monsoon winds - from southwest to northeast and back later - and are seekers too, could perhaps similarly notice how ‘foreigners’ from ‘west’ continue to land in the ‘east’ at regular intervals, while apparently displacing some from the ‘east’ to travel to the ‘west’ – in a cyclic manner – ‘local as well as foreigners’. And, some of those that are thus displaced get settled, initially like fresh potable water ‘stored in still water-bodies, ponds and lakes’. Some of those then ‘at some stage, might allow mosquitoes to breed though’!

Anonymous said...

Here is another reaction to an article that had appered in my newspaper on ‘Models’…
The Truth About Models by John Gribbin (18/1), a visiting fellow in astronomy, University of Sussex, is a poor ‘truth’, obviously as it comes from the ‘west’! Absolute Truth’ that was reached by advanced ‘Hindus’, the True Working Models of the universe that is GOD!

It will ever remain distant from the ‘blinkered horses’ that are being egged on since eternity by the proverbial carrot – as part of a grand design by Mahakal the immortal Bhootnath Shiva - and not just 13.7 billion years!

It is, of course, helpful for fooling also ‘born Hindus’ though. Lage raho Munnabhai!!

JC said...

Kavithaji, There is a much publicized saying in the Gita wherein Krishna is depicted by the wise saying to the effect that although he is an agent of death, a representative of the four-handed Vishnu, and the whole universe in fact is within Him, however, because of illusion, he is believably seen to reside within all (imperfect) animal forms on earth. And, also that whenever there is fall in human efficiency (to a certain predetermined level), He personally appears on earth in human form – (as a typical ‘perfect model’ of the universe that is Vishnu on Ananta or Sheshanag/ Shiva the Destroyer) - to set right the whole system…
Although every model in human form has an inherent property to plan for a good ‘future’ based on extrapolation of one’s apparent ‘present status’ vis-à-vis that of the external world and likely behaviour of the apparently concerned systems as they exist in the ‘present’, yet as the common man does not possess enough knowledge and expertise, to assist them there also exist certain models, or ‘professionals’, perhaps naturally, who have apparently developed ‘expertise’ over time and are available to assist/ guide the interested. However, one has also become aware, (as it has relatively become more noticeable ‘today’ because of advancement in material development at a rapied rate in the recent ‘past’), that it is all a matter of ‘luck’ and they might get cheated…

The wise ancients, through Yogiraja Krishna, therefore, advised one to surrender in the ever elusive Supreme Knowledge – Yogeshwar Shiva, the Pashupatinath!

JC said...

No reaction:?)

So, here is another reaction - on Nano car - to an article in my newspaper...

This refers to the interesting Second Opinion article, ‘Not elitists but neo-casteists hate the Nano’, by Pundit Jug Suraiya (19/1).

‘I’ found it interesting particularly because of the nice graphical sketch - by Shri Neelabh, literally the ‘Blue Tint’, perhaps a reflection of Neelamber Krishna, for blue colour is associated with poison by ‘unwise primitive Hindus’ related with ‘evolution of species’ through ‘churning of the milky-ocean’ - of a ‘castrated’ bull, (perhaps the basic word from which evolved the word ‘caste’ – high or low?), bull still being used by poor farmers/ common man for multiple usage, including pulling of bullock carts...

Many of Munshi Premchand’s popular stories in a ‘foreign language’ for the ‘elitists’ in the ‘present day India’, ‘Hindi’, once upon a time, had bulls as important characters that were given human names, viz. ‘Hira & Moti’, literally ‘Diamond & Pearl’ of the the also 'elitist'…

And, ‘Hindus by thought’ still, ritually, continue to believe ‘Nandi’ the most potent bull as the vehicle of Shiva the Bhootnath, the virat or Supreme form of Krishna, a representative of Vishnu the Nadbindu, the point source of infinite energy, (Nanoo, means small in hill-dialect of north India/ Uttarakhand. For example, in Kumaoni dialect, the maan di dal in Punjabi, is referred as a ‘small pundit with a spot of sandal paste on his forehead’, in the saying, “Nan-nan Baman/ tupuki chandan”), to start with, that is, the Peetamber, the yellow colour associated with Guru or Superior, the most evolved Gangadhar & Chandrashekahara Shiva in human form ;-)

The Birlas (literally, ‘the rare ones’) reportedly were unhappy because even nan-nan, or Nano infants in ‘India that is Bharat’ first learn to take the name of Tata - when bidding farewell!

Could Nano car - as a reflection of the above - may only be a symbolic of farewell to Kaliyuga - the curtain to Krishnaleela?

Anonymous said...

Chapter X in the Bhagavad Gita, literally ‘God’s song’, indicates among animal forms; Celestial cow, Kamdhenu; Serpent Vasuki; Celestial serpent-god Ananta; Crocodile, Lion, bird Garuda, etc. as reflections or images of Krishna, but it doesn’t include the Ass, the hardy animal, described in the dictionary as: A four-footed animal of the horse family, used as a beast of burden; a donkey; a dull, stupid fellow; a dolt…

However, ‘I’ noticed, besides Ox (meaning: Any animal of the bovine kind; a bull, castrated and full grown – and Nandi the bull is indicated in the Hindu mythology as Shiva’s vehicle), the Ass mentioned in one of the commandments in the Bible, that is, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.”

The above, thus invited my attention to the hardy asses that are found in the saline land on the coastal region of Rann of Kuttch, in Gujarat, 'west India' that doesn’t support much of the vegetation, which the ‘asses’ in other regions of ‘India’ are seen to enjoy :-), which to me appeared to reflect the believable mischievous nature of Krishna the Dwarikadhish who ruled from Dwarika...

JC said...

In the ‘present’, one learns from ‘scientists’ that our universe is apparently still expanding, like a balloon, together with its material contents tht also are expanding while floating in space…

During Dwaperyuga, Dwrikadhish Krishna is indicated in Hindu Mythology (read between lines) as our still evolving/ expanding Milky Way Galaxy, till after reaching the end of the Yuga he believably achieved the form of ‘Bharat’, one of the three brothers of Rama in Tretayuga.
Thus apparently from five Pandavas in Dwaperyuga, now the brothers were reduced to only four in numbers n Tretayuga.

And, eventually, during Satyuga, only the trio, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesha, apparently continued to evolve further in the expanding galaxy/ universe till the end of Satyuga - when finally Shiva/ composite earth alone, representing in essence the characteristic property of the Trimurty, was achieved as the true image of the Nadbindu that was entrapped or imprisoned at its centre, although it is being similarly seen reflected in the infinite physical forms individually also!
The Yogis therefore imagined the human form also to similarly reflect in essence the total energy/ information locked up in the eight chakras within human form - as conveyed through Ma Durga the eight-handed goddess, the ‘ardhangini’ of Shiva, seen reflected in the animal forms of the web-spinning Spider, on land, and the Octopus, in seawater :-)

And, Bet Dwarika, under the sea, is believed to have been the original capital of the Guru, that got submerged at some stage to give rise to the apparently ‘present day Dwarika’, which, in fact, is the capital of evolved Natkhat Nandlal of Mathura/ Brindavan on the Yamuna to start with, at the beginning of Kaliyuga, the Yuga, also called ‘CE’ (closing error as in land surveys?), in fact the fag-end that is being highlighted by the Bhootnath :-)

JC said...

Talking of ‘Pashupatinath’, Shiva & His vehicle Nandi/ Krishna and His various animal forms, ‘I’ had almost missed the news item in ‘my’ newspaper - emanating from Chennai on 19/1 - with a heading “Peta chief arrested for blindfolding Mahatma statue”. Although I had heard of SPCA, ‘I’ learnt that ‘Peta’ stands for People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, with Ingrid Newkirk as its founder-director who was arrested together with some other locals for blindfolding the said statue in Gandhi Park in Coimbatore…

They were reportedly protesting against ‘jallikattu’, the cruelty to bovines in the name of sport and judicial sanction to the traditional bull-taming sport in Tamil Nadu…

JC said...

Here is another of 'my' reactions in lighter vein...

This refers to the interesting 'Jugular Vein' article, Blank Chak, by Pundit Jug Suraiya (20/1 – STOI, (perhaps an anagram-like short for, IOTS, ‘I Owe Tea to an asS’ in his own vein -(;-)

The long and short of S is - ‘S’ da jawab nahin!

S is for ‘Shiva’ the omnipresent & omnipotent to a ‘Hindu by thought’ & it is also for ‘Shit’ to a ‘born Hindu’ :-)

S is for the shortstuff, the Nadbindu, a mere dot, and S is also for Sheshanag, or Ananta (nag), the infinitely Tall Guy acting as a bed, or base (mooladhar - to a Yogi), for the shortstuff in the middle of the Milky-ocean – what foolishness, in the eyes of a ‘born Hindu’ ;-)

Hear the LRM, munnabhai ;-)

JC said...

One more reaction to yet another article in ‘my’ newspaper this morning…Krishna says he works every second and doesn’t rest Himself and therefore continues to keep human mind also working in order to keep one alive!

“This refers to the interesting analysis by Pundit Jug Suraiya in his article Maybe it’s time we scrapped state awards (20/1 – STOI).

The one-legged weather-cock is still alive and kicking although the poor cocks or ‘chicks that wear the red crown’ are being put to sleep, (a repeat show of a similar drama played in 2006, in the ‘commercial capital’ of India itself where money fails to save the poor, leave aside poor chicks), in the ‘red-flag ruled WB’ - perhaps an abbreviation for Wastepaper Basket (?) - the materially poor state that once was ‘spiritually rich’ - is proposed as the stage for projection of a dream for the ‘poor man’ by a ‘rich entrepreneur’ from the ‘commercial capital of Bharat’ in the ‘west’, that is, ‘India’…

Besides us humans, believably the ‘king of animals’, although in reality the caretakers of animals (Gopal-Krishna-like), Bharat & Ratna apparently exist thanks to serpent-like Visha-dhar, the blue throated, or Neelakantha Shiva known as the Blue Planet to the ‘present day wise’!”

Anonymous said...

When discussing about the wise, in ChapterV: 18 some more animals are indicated which were not indicated as the most evolved forms of Krishna in chapter X, “The wise look with the same eye on a Brahman endowed with learning and culture, a cow, an elephant, dog and a pariah too.

Yudish said...

Hi Joshi Uncle,

I find your comparison of Krishna and Lord Shiva as Pashupatinath very interesting. I have not heard that Krishna was an instrument of death, when he is known to preserve. And his connection to Pashupatinath, the place where the dead a burnt at the very entrance of the temple of Lord Shiva(which I read earlier in this blog), makes it very unique.

A very interesting analogy!!

Yudish

JC said...

Hi Yudish,
As ‘I’ said earlier also, it was in the middle eighties only that ‘I’ could purposefully read the Gita, a copy of which was presented to me in the middle of the seventies - almost a decade earlier...

A number of pleasant and unpleasant events - some mysterious happenings too - during the intervening period experienced in the northeast region virtually obliged me to do in-depth study of the ‘spiritual’ aspect of life…

In retrospect ‘I’ came to realize many events in my childhood could very well have sufficed for me to realize the presence of Krishna/ Bhootnath, if ‘I’ had shown ‘inclination’ to do so earlier!

For your information, in chaper X: 23, Krishna says, “Among the eleven Rudras (gods of destruction); I am Siva; and among the yaksas and Raksasas; I am the lord of Riches (Kubera). Among the eight Vasus, I am the god of fire; and among the mountains, I am the Meru.”

Description of Siva and Kubera could perhaps be easily seen to point towards earth that holds within its bowels all the riches, and also it is Gangadhar and Chandrshekhara, as also the ‘mrityulok’, or ‘Siva the Destroyer’ of life forms…
Thus it performs all the three functions of creation, sustenance and destruction of all transient forms…with Sun or Brahma, one of the eight Vasus, the fire god (meaning, Sun, out of the eight selected members of our solar system)...

JC said...

Here is another reaction This time to views appeared in my newspaper regarding its policy...

This refers to various interesting ‘conversations’/ ‘MTMV’ resulting from TOI or toi’s frank admission of believably ‘clear, honest, and bold’ manner, like ‘Gautam the Buddha’ did once upon a time - by Shri ‘Gautam the Adhikari’ in his article “Where We stand”.

It is perhaps not necessary to remind a 'Hindu' that it is a common belief that each human being’s soul, the real VIP, is obliged to pass through 8.4 million ‘inferior animal forms’ before it can achieve for the first time the ‘human form’ - the superior most ‘animal form’ in so far as its structure is concerned, but wild form to begin with and therefore needing ‘proper education’. All apparent events, however, follow a grand design of a Supreme Being…

To a ‘Hindu by thought’ it’s merely a reflection of the status of ‘Time’…and the ‘present’ believably is Kaliyuga the ‘dark age’ and that too at its fag-end. Although apparently the ‘perfect’ being’s reflection is presented in the form of apparently ‘perfect Nature’ and also in ‘recorded thoughts’ of the believable incarnations of the formless Creator available for reference of the ‘wise’ it doesn’t let us, or WE THE PEOPLE, to act as an ass and rest in peace too ;-)

A ‘seeker’ might realize the ‘Truth’ that even garbage dumps also, similarly like a ‘newspaper’, could be seen to have material for consumption - peacefully and quietly - of all and sundry animals including the ‘rag picker’.

In short, both cater to all - depending on each animal form’s taste developed over time because of apparent background status depending on one’s temporal and spatial location at the time of birth and upbringing of the concerned thereafter ;-)

And, despite the garbage or poison that believably had emerged due to ‘churning’ in the beginning, still, “Sare jahan se achha Hindustan hamara” :-)

JC said...

One can perhaps oneself explain one’s behaviour better, because one’s own background is best known to him/ her, which however might appear ‘wrong’ to another person at a particular point in time…A ‘mad’ person might for example be excused for his ‘wrong actions’ as determined by the majority, although he/ she might get locked up for correction in some asylum…and history might have all praise later for, say, Mirabai-like ‘eccentric persons’, considered as such at some given point in time, because time is the best judge!

The mythology depicts Krishna the revered personality to Hindus, in his childhood and youth also to have behaved peculiarly/ erratically till some point in time.

His thoughts are believably recorded in Bhagavad Gita, which at least indicates in-depth study done at a certain point in time, believably in the ‘past’ that in fact was ‘future’ of the apparent ‘present’ when seen in the right perspective!

Reflection of the ‘Truth’ can even be seen in the ‘garments’ humans wear, as Krishna tells Arjuna in the battle-field not to be afraid of death of the physical form that in fact is the garment for the body!

For example a lungi, or a skirt, or a petticoat/ lehanga, and so on could reflect the unique or straightforward God of the ‘advaitvad’! Whereas, a pyjama, or pants, or ‘salwar’, and so on, could be seen as examples of the unique god at the top, dividing into two at the bottom to create the much publicized and misunderstood ‘Maya’/ ‘Yogmaya’ that is illusion - if only bottom parts are seen and not the triio as a whole - 'Trimurty Shiva'!

Anonymous said...

Sorry Kavitha!

In the 4th para, please read 'soul' for 'body'...

JC said...

Of course, who says we are generally pained by death of ‘inferior animals’ and also other humans too that are not related with us closely!

Arjuna-like, ‘I’ too killed a bird with an air-rifle that belonged to a class fellow, when ‘I’ was just under twentyone years in age and had stayed in his house in Moradabad for a couple of days in connection with a marriage in his family...

‘I’ was handling an air-rifle for the first time and, being a debutant, ‘I’ was perhaps foolishly absolutely certain that ‘I’ would miss the bird by miles, for it sat high on the branch of a tree...

I hadn’t expected it and when the bird actually fell on the ground, ‘I’ was filled with remorse…for ‘I’ was reminded of the popular incident reported in Buddha’s younger days related to his saving the life of a bird that had got injured by his cousin, Devdatta!

In the eyes of my friend’s younger brothers, who also had accompanied us, ‘I’ got appreciation that is generally given to a ‘hero’!

At another date later, after almost 16 years of the first incident, 'I' was a bit doubtful of my inherent nature when during a fete, 'I' scored a bull's eye with the second dart while the organisers were relaxed 'I' couldn't win the prize for my first dart had missed the mark by miles!

JC said...

As earlier also elsewhere indicated, ‘I’ found ‘wise advanced Hindus’ to have used code or cryptic language to communicate their realization of the believable ‘Truth’ of Creation, sustenance, and detruction of the now believed as illusory universe/ ‘mithya jagat’ that is earth.

In Hindi, a rainbow is called ‘Indradhanush’ or Indra’s bow while in Bengali it is called ‘Ramdhanu’, where Lord Rama is associated with our Sun as the ‘suryavanshi’ king whose arrows, that is sunlight, were shot in all direction in a straight line. And Arjuna also was an expert archer like Rama…

From the above, one could perhaps make out that Indra, Arjuna, Rama, etc. all relate to our Sun, the source of Hydrogen Bombs that is ‘Brahmastra’ and therefore related with Brahma too!

Thus, it indicates evolution of ‘Arjuna’ in Dwaperyuga to ‘Rama’ in Tretayuga, and finally to ‘Brahma’ in Satyuga, as one of the aspects of Trimurty Shiva, whose life-giving sunlight is capable of penetrating earth’s (Shiva’s) gravity and enter its atmosphere – expressed in the 'Ramleela' as prince Rama’s breaking of Shiva’s old bow that was reportedly given to Him by Lord Vishnu, the ‘poisonous atom’.
And Krishna happens to be Vishnu’s incarnation in Dwaperyuga!

Now, ‘demon Ravana’s’ son, Meghanad, is depicted as having tied Indra devta in ‘Nagpash’ that is a deadly-poisonous-snake-like weapon at some stage. And he, similarly, during the battle with Rama’s army, used poisonous arrow, called ‘shakti-baan’ to render Lakshamana unconscious!

And the mythology has it that Shiva the Pashupatinath alone was capable of consuming the deadliest poison - thanks to Parvati having given ‘amrit’, which perhaps is also called ‘Pashupat’ weapon that she gave to Arjuna also in Dwaoeryuga as it finds mention in Mahabharat!

And Parvati’s son Ganesha, represented by Mars, had the blessings of both, Mothers Kali as well as Gauri, and during Tretayuga, although still evolving, Hanuman represented Mars and he alone was thus capable of bringing the antidote for the poison, called 'sanjeevani booti' prescribed by a well meaning
rakshasha vaid that is doctor - to revive Lakshamana, the ‘imperfect’ form of Shiva Himself!

As ‘I’ had indicated it in detail, it was in Gauahti, northeast ‘India’ that ‘I’ had coincidentally or by design come across a snake charmer cum venom seller, who surprisingly correctly predicted my father’s impending heart attack a fortnight in advance – when he had
met me for the first time and hadn’t known me earlier.

He showed me a number of snakes, viz. cobra and kraite etc. he had caught during a certain period, and also educated me about them…He had apparently learnt the art of handling snakes from some Yogis who had come to Calcutta from the Himalayas, from 'my' place according to him!

JC said...

The Himalayan ranges trend West-East and has Shiva-Parvati’s believable abode Mount Kailash, in Tibet, which is now in China, whereas the highest peak of the Himalayas was called Sagarmatha, that is, literally ‘the head of the sea’, now called Mount Everest, and is located in Nepal, the only ‘Hindu’ country that is now experiencing disturbance among its resident Nepalese due apparently to administrative reasons, that is, ‘teething troubles’ on account of transition from rule of one, since long, to the rule of the majority, like it now exists also in the Indian sub continent since recent times, except the now disturbed ficke-minded Pakistan also, that is, in (truncated) ‘India’, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and in neighbouring China also... And, it’s perhaps a ‘coincidence’ that the first ‘foreigner’ to have set foot on Mt. Everest’s ‘matha’, that is, the summit, in recent times, Sir Edmund Hillary, breathed his last very recently...

Democracy, that is, ‘administration by the people themselves’ apparently is a ‘new philosophy’ in vogue on earth. True democracy is, however, apparently reflected by our solar system since over 4 billion years already. And Hindus believed man to be a model of the universe via the solar system as its essence…

The globe, Shiva the Pashupatinath, thus could be visualised - with this particular view-point in mind – represented by a centipede, an anthropod, one of the largest terrestrial invertebrates that walks on 100 pairs of legs – and in its appearance, it looks to ‘me’ similar to the human vertebrae, the ‘meru-danda’ to the yogis!

Another model that could help one imagine is the popular boat race in the backwaters of Kerala.

The above-cited models could perhaps help one understand that democracy can only function properly only if each and every participant in the race understood the purpose, or the goal, in mind of the formless Creator, and thereafter worked in unison to achieve the goal (Mahatma Gandhi could perhaps help visualize it for the limited purpose of 'self rule') – which only Trimurty Shiiva apparently eventually apparently achieved at the end of Satyuga!

JC said...

Only a believer, a ‘Hindu by thought’, can perhaps visualise the ‘present’ to be in reality the projection of the concerned highlighted ‘past’.

It is conveyed by ‘wise advanced Hindus’ in the Gita that the Supreme form of Krishna, Pashupatinath Shiva, has mouths and eyes in all directions. Thus, the projection is apparently being seen by different ‘images of the Supreme soul itself’ differently, because of different levels achieved by each soul at the given point in time during their apparent past. That is to say, that each ‘soul’ - within each of the apparent innumerable animal forms on earth – acts as one out of many eyes as part of His Own Eye, i.e., Shiva’s, ‘Third eye’!

One can thus perhaps appreciate the whole apparent different physical forms that are believed to exist within the infinite void of the universe, in the form of innumerable galaxies (sudershan-chakra of themythology), as the ‘chakras’ within the apparent physical form of the Creator, as the ‘True image’ of the one and only Formless Supreme Being!

And man was also believed symbolically to have eight chakras within the human form...

Anonymous said...

To appreciate the above realization ‘I’ have believed the eight chakras to be represented by colours/ energies, as essences of different selected members of our solar system, which itself believably is the essence of the universe.

Based on logic derived from the mythological stories etc. ‘I’ have come to believe the order of the colours, as essences of different members of the solar system from Mooladhar the base to Sahasrara the head, as follows: Orange, Red, Infra-red, White, Ultra-violet, Blue, Green & Yellow.

The different colours/ energies are associated with corresponding gemstones by astrologers, which believably are used on person or on photographs of the individuals to improve the efficiency of the concerned - as it would perhaps have been attempted in the 'past', which ‘I’ too have tried - with success to a certain extent, in ‘my’ continued experiments with ‘Truth’…

Anonymous said...

Thinking of ‘soul’, that is Vishnu/ Krishna, literally the ‘Black’ as the essence of the physical form(s), myself being addicted to it, like me one might get reminded of the essence of ‘two leaves and a bud’ of the plant, the drink that cheers both rich and the poor in ‘India’ equally, that is, Tea, (pronounced as the letter ‘T’, which itself can perhaps lead one to various other forms and related thoughts – one of which could be the highest pedestal provided to Parvati, the Guru and provider of ‘amrit’, for immortality to devtas, the solar system as Mahashiva, that has Green earth as His ‘third eye’, and poisonous Venus as His blue throat!)…

Although there are many varieties of tea available in India, three varieties grown in the hilly regions in Darjeeling and Assam in the northeast region, and in the Nilgiris in the south, (literally the ‘blue mountain’ that is generally associated with Shiva associated with 'churning' and Mount Neelkantha in Himalayas), are world famous…

One million acres of tea is believably being cultivated in India in about 14,000 tea estates that provide employment to about one million people (superior most animal form of Pashupatinath Shiva!)…

JC said...

Talking of tea, it’s normally heard that tea was earlier used as a medicine! It’s also well known that once upon a time, in advanced India that was Mahabharat, Ayurveda the system of medicine using herbs was highly advanced.
The ‘present’ deterioration was realised as such, apparently naturally, as ‘panchatatvas’ or ‘panchabhootas’ originating also from zero had, in reality, advanced with time from Kaliyuga to Satyuga, and thus herbs/ life on earth too had advanced with the evolution process of life – not only of animals, from wild to the tamed race of the so-called ‘civilised world’!
It is only by the end of Satyuga that Raudra Shiva, or Bhairava the angry young man came to be popularly known as Bholanath, and symbolically as ‘Trishuldhari’ the Trident holder; Triloknath the Lord of the three worlds, sky, surface of earth and underground (or ‘swarga’, ‘martya’, and ‘patal’); Trimurty or Treyambakam, the ‘Three mothers’ - reflected in ‘Triveni’ literally the ‘three plaits’ of a young Hindu girl or her ‘choti’, the three sacred rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, the reflection of the unique divine person, or Yogeshwar Shiva, responsible for ‘Maya’ or illusion of creation, sustenance and transformation of the variety of temporary or transient forms!
Thus it is apparently only a matter of defective mindset or mental attitude – due to ‘Time’!

JC said...

Talking of evolution, languages also have evolved fom silence with the passage of time under Time or Mahakal Shiva as realized by advanced humans, called ‘Indians’ or ‘Hindus’ – because of Indu the Moon!

‘I’ would cite only a few typical examples with letter ‘V’, the sign for Victory made using only the index finger (representing Moon the Guru or evolved ‘Peetamber Krishna’) and middle finger (representing Venus the poisonous planet or sstill evolving ‘Neelamber krishna’): V is for ‘Vasudhadhar’ that is Vishnu; V is for ‘Vasumati’ or ‘Vasundhara’ and ‘Vasudha’ the ‘earth’ (also in short, ‘dhara’ that is the one that holds – centre of earth as the source of gravity, representing Vishnu the Nadbindu, held within the physical form of earth); V is also for Vasu the ‘fire’, as also ‘water’ – both life-giving elements, called ‘panchbhootas or panchatatvas considered together with ‘earth’ ‘air’ and ‘sky’ the atmosphere/ space! And so on…
Hindus therefore considered Earth together with all the ‘life forms’ it holds as the family of earth, i.e., ‘Vasudhaiva Kutukbakam’…or ‘Dharati Mata’ the Mother Earth ('ME'! also the third note of music, and earth is called the 'third planet' also)!

Anonymous said...

Barkha Datt of on NDTV had recently discussed Blogs or Weblogs with participation of some selected ‘bloggers’, on the popular programme under the title ‘We The People’.
‘I’ came to learn that 140,000 bloggers had originally appeared on the Net, (a reflection of the ‘Big Bang’ perhaps), out of which only 40,000 have remained operational. And, out of those also, it was expressed by some that most of the bloggers talked about temselves or on subjects that were not of interest to the majority (thus perhaps the number is likely to reduce further and peter down to ‘silence’, perhaps!) and therefore do not pose any fear of competition to the print or electronic media in ‘India that is Bharat’, although in the USA some blogs have apparently made some strong impact (after all, it’s a matter of sustenance for the mediapersons!)…

Looking through the window or ‘O’ or zero (0) formed by joining the thumb and the index finger (as in ‘siddhasan’), on both palms ‘me’ sees letters ‘I’ and ‘V’ (‘heart line’ reading as ‘I’, and life and head lines. While considered together, on ‘my’ left palm, they are read as IV (4 – which to ‘me’ reflects the essence of Sun, ‘Aditi’ the store house of Hydrogen the first element, or numero one, ‘I’); and on ‘my’ right palm, VI (6 – which to ‘me’ reflects the planet, ‘V’ for Venus)!

If ‘U’ sees, what ‘I’ sees then only ‘V’ could all ‘C’ the seawater and sky or space (water and fire both being called 'Vasu' - and Vasuki Nag was used for 'churnng of the milky ocean) as one single unit! And also realize why child/ youth Neelamber Krishna was called mischievous or ‘natkhat Nandlal’ (symbolic of ‘death’, for ‘he broke with stones weak earthen water-pots, containing Yamuna water’, and thus wetting the milk-maids’!) who eventually evolved into Bholnath or Treymbkam Shiva, the 'Vaidnath', the Doctor of doctors!

JC said...

The ring finger represents our Sun (Brahma), the source of white light (that is Saraswati, Brahma’s consort, shown in images symbolically clad in white sari, which used o be worn in north India by widows, symbolic of Brahma’s head cut away by Rudra or Bhairavanath Shiva. However, many females in the northeast, irrespective of whether they are married or unmarried, wear a white sari – perhaps symbolic of River Brahmaputra, having its origin also in Mansarovar Lake, reappearing in that region and linking with Ganga (although now in Bangladesh, once a part of ‘India’) before it drains into the Bay of Bengal, (as River Padma, literally the Lotus Flower with which Brahma is associated in the mythology!), instead of at ‘Triveni Sangam’ the believable location of confluence of the three rivers, Ganga, Yamuna, and Saraswati at Allahabad at some point in time, from where Saraswati the Goddess of learning and Knowledge reportedly had disappeared!

As indicated in ‘my’ previous comment, my left palm thus reflects my ring and middle fingers, and the right palm the middle and the indes fingers.

And in Hindi, 'V' is also for ‘Vijaya’, that is, Victory, and Ganatantra Divas Parade on 26th January since 1950 is held at the ‘Vijaya Chowk’ that is Victory Square!

And, in the Tamil Nadu political scene, the latest drama is the battle between Jayalalithaa (Jaya also meaning victory) and Vijayakantha (?), the believable white and black images, respectively, of the legacy of MGR the founder of the political party AIDMK!

[Also, noticeable is the fact that the relatively more polluted River Yamuna, associated with child/ youth Krishna, is believed to be the sister of Yamraj, the god or Agent of Death, or Shiva the Destroyer - who is also called Dharmaraj, as Yudhister was also thus called in Dwaperyuga, despite his being a gambler and a known loser, but of a truthful nature – like Bholanath!
Africa the ‘Dark Continent’ is now known as the root of the Homo sapiens, and ‘I’ came across the headline of a report that read, “Congo conflict kills about 45,000 people a month”! And Krishna says not to feel the pain, whereas Yudhister reportedly called it the biggest surprise that everyone knows that death is inevitable and yet fears it! Tulsidas said to the effect that it is the fear that helps generate love for God!]

JC said...

The fairy-tale of ‘Jack and the beanstalk’, ‘I’ had read in the childhood, could perhaps help imagine the apparent activation of ‘Kundalini’, the term used by Yogis with a view to penetrating the ‘maya-jal’ or illusion believably created by Krishna the Supreme soul’s representative by storing Supreme Knowledge in different chambers, or chakras, within human forms…and attain eternl bliss!

Jack, a poor foolish boy, exchanged for magical seeds the last savings he had received from his widowed mother! His mother was naturally angry and threw the seeds out of he window, and sent him to sleep without food. In the morning, however, he found the seeds had grown into a giant beanstalk, the top of which was lost in the clouds, where apparently there was located a Giant’s palace!

He climbed the beanstalk three times and managed first to steal gold, second time a hen that laid golden eggs, and finally the third time a magical harp and each time escaped with the help of the Giant’s kind wife, although the Giant tried to kill him everytime. And, the third time the Giant even chased him down. However, Jack luckily managed to reach first and cut the beanstalk with an axe, which resulted in his fall upon the ground and resultant splitting and thus the death of the Giant!
And, obviously, they lived happily thereafter!

JC said...

Brahma is supposed to have four faces. Therefore, different versions of the same thought might get received in different people who might be located in the four cardinal directions, and expressed in different languages by each, which might subsequently also be copied by some other characters, maybe with certain ommisions or additions…hence innumerable versions of the same thought!
We had a colleague who, ‘I’ was told, used to send the same article, originally written by him some time ago, to different magazines with slight modifications made in each from time to time!

JC said...

Perhaps, once more, a 'Hindu by thought' only can notice the significance of the ‘five magical seeds’ - like ‘Panchattvas’ or ‘panchakshar beej mantra’ - are indicated for maerially poor Jack’s beanstalk to grow into the ‘sky’ or Heaven...

And, then one might also observe the original stage when only ‘poison’, like in the first stage of 'churning', had existed in the beginning in the life of the ‘mother & child’...

In the first attempt, i.e., the second stage of ‘churning’, Jack manages only some gold (yellow metal) coins and in the third stage he is able to obtain a regular source of the yellow 'Royal metal'...

However, it is only in the fourth stage of ‘churning’ that ‘Mother Saraswati’, the Mother of all mothers, helps him receive the magical harp. And, interestingly, the sound believably emitted by our Sun, as recently recorded by ‘modern scientists’, also resembles the sound of a harp, a stringed musical instrument – referred as Saraswati Veena by Hindus! However, in the ‘west’, the harp is associated with ‘angels of Heaven’!

One might also observe that strings in musical instruments generally are made from steel. And also an axe has iron honed on stone a handle made of wood, thus Earth & Saturn or Venus also played important roles in saving Jack's life!

Anonymous said...

‘I’ might add that ‘I’ had earlier elsewhere also indicated hard rock found on the composite earth to have been indirectly related in the mythological stories with Kartikeya the physically powerful elder son of Shiva-Parvati, also called the ‘(right) shoulder’ (that is ‘skandha’) - of Mother Parvati. Ganesha, the younger son, the favourite of the Mother was ‘designed’ to provide protection to Parvati herself from Shiva the Destroyer!

And also that, in the Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that man is an inverted tree and, unlike it, his roots are not in the ‘earth’ that is Gangadhar Shiva – those are in the ‘sky’! And thus conveying importance of Mahashiva the solar system, (in ‘Akashganga’), in the creation of apparent ‘Maya’ that is illusion…

JC said...

‘My daughter' says her daughter and ‘I’ both go tangentially and don’t come straight to the point...

In popular tongue it is called ‘phattas’, or ‘Siddhuism’ (word coined after a former Indian Cricketer's name), perhaps reflecting the characteristic property of human brain, or ‘mind’, to ‘freak out’ – brain being realized as a natural analogous computer, a super one.

Making a wild guess, ‘I’ thus believe that the name ‘Lakulisa’ could be a misnomer derived from ‘Languli’ that means a ‘monkey’, thus ‘Lakulisa’ might indicate a man whose appearance is close to a ‘vanar’ or monkey, that is, ‘Languli sa’ – like Hanuman who is also believed by some to be one of the 27 or 28 incarnations of Pashupatinath Shiva!

Without referring to any particular person, in the ‘present’ also there are humans, that is, simians, who remind some of the said animal.
Also in Hindi language there is a popular saying, “Balak, Bandar ek samana,” that is, ‘boys and monkeys behave similarly’! Also it is said, "The art of growing old is to remain a child".

JC said...

And, it might be added further that the name ‘langur’, that is, a species of monkey that has a dark face and relatively a longer tail - compared to their fairer or reddish skinned cousins - is also derived from ‘languli’.

JC said...

Talking of Pashupatinath and animals and their reflections, either in action or in appearance seen also in humans, in a lighter vein, a person filed a defamation case against another person who had reportedly called him a ‘hippopotamus’. It is, of course, common for man to call others by names of some animals, viz. leech, ass, fox, wolf, and so on…

During the hearing, the judge asked him why he had filed the case at such a late date, for he was called hippopotamus seven years ago! The complainant replied that it was only that very day that he had visited a zoo - and seen a hippo for the first time!

JC said...

When one visits the northeast region of India, and travels by road through Nagaland, like I happened to do a couple of times in the eighties, one might not encounter any birds, for the Nagas apparently eat not only the insects that are attracted by light when it is dark (like it is believed done by ‘nagas’ that is snakes that get attracted by the light of ‘nagmani’ that is believably found naturally on some cobras’ hood!), they eat birds also.

However, dog’s meat is their favourite, a delicacy! It was news to me when I stayed for a few years in that region…Once, in fact, the common man in New Delhi was greatly shocked, when the news-item regarding dog’s meat found served in some popular restaurant, deceptively as mutton, had appeared in the local newspapers!
However, because of the peculiar phenomenon of birds virtually dropping from the sky, attracted by torch-light under certain typical atmospheric conditions and - earlier believed to be an offering from God - was reportedly consumed as food item by the poor tribals in the Jatinga Valley at a certain period. The phenomenon reportedly attracted Ornithologists from all over India and from other countries too, and thus the practice was discontinued!

Sacrifice of animals in Kamakhya Temple at Guwahati, and in all other temples where ‘shakti’ or energy is worshipped is apparently still continued, maybe not in large numbers now - that is in the 'past'. However, the basic thought behind the practice was to help ‘inferior animal forms’ to achieve human form, the superior most form, at the earliest – and also thus help the devotee to achieve ‘moksha’ or ‘liberation’!

JC said...

All ‘modern men’ also worship ‘shakti’, for they consume relatively much more food than the ancient man, or even the ‘present day poor man’ also - to recoup energy, or/ rather generate more energy for wasting it in rallies or infructous activities – and maybe to spend rest of the time in hspitals! In this process he is consuming all available energy resources, stored naturally, perhaps by design – like one consciously fills up the fuel-tank of his vehicle to consume it judiciiosly and not foolishly - within or around our vehicle, We call earth – Nandi to our ancestors!

The ‘primitive man’ was perhaps wiser, for he appears to have - perhaps following a similar path initially - realized his foolishness, that is, he became aware that he was only ‘chasing a red herring’...

He appears to have paused and the ‘wise men’ apparently gathered at Kashi on the banks of Ganga to brain-storm and send scientists, who when they became wiser came to be known as Yogis, in search of its source, and similarly man’s own origin...which apparently as the 'Truth' engages the mind of the 'present day scientists'...

And, they eventually came to realize earth itself as the origin of all life forms!

The ancient Hindu astronomers, based on experience and realization of the ‘Absolute Truth’ thus showed earth, (Ananta or immortal Harihara, meaning Green colour that is found located in the middle of the visible spectrum, as its essence), as the centre of the infinite universe of multi-coloured Heavenly Bodies - as the one and only cause of ‘Maya’ that is illusion, as the evolved representative of the Formless Creator, called Nirakar Nadbindu, the point source of infinite energy – the real but elusive VIP thanks to Pashupatinath Shiva, Adbhutnath the wonderful Lord!

The ‘wise ancient Indians or Hindus’ therefore worshipped Earth-Moon, symbolically through life-giving Kailash-Mansarovar the source of life-giving water, the abode of unseen Gangadhar Shiva-Parvati as human beings’ real parents cum caretaker of all animals :-)

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