नर्मदायै नमः प्रातःIn the wake of dawn
Calm reigns supreme
The waters at the Narmadakund rise
Life giving waters for the living
She originates here
Goddess Narmada gushes forth
From the very being of Lord Shiva
She rises to bless the land
Life giving waters flow
The Mother rises to shine
Protects us from venomous snake bite
Purifies our souls divine
Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh: Narmada is serene beauty that descends from heaven, from Lord Shiva's being and she descends onto the earth here at the holy town on Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh. This is the sacred place from here the great river Narmada originates and flows towards the Arabian Sea. The Narmada is one among three rivers that originate here, the Sone river originates at Sonemuda near Narmadakund in the Maikal mountains. The third river is Juhila River that originates further away.
Tripurantaka Shiva destroyed the 3 demon cities of Tripura, while they burnt down to ashes, one of the cities fell at Kailash, the ashes of the second fell at Amarkantak and Lord Shiva saved the ashes of the third city from falling anywhere. When the ashes fell here, they turned into crore of Shiva lingas, of which only one remains in the temple of Sri Jwaleshwar Mahadev, 8 kms from Amarkantak. This is called Maha Rudra Meru, one of only 2 such places with Maha Rudra Meru, the other being Varanasi.
Kalidasa is known to have visited Amarkantak and names the place Amrakoot after the beautiful mango groves that dotted this sacred land. Adi Shankaracharya is known to have come and resided by the river side and consecrated its banks, he also founded the Pataleshwar temple at Amarkantak from a clump of bamboo trees. This place is called Surajkund today.
Amarkantak has found its place in the Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Vasishtasamhita and Shatapatha Brahmana. Situated near the ancient city of Kalinga, Amarkantak is a place where Gods, Gandharvas, Asuras and Rishis have achieved divine spiritual powers. This river has its own story to tell, one that is unique and particularly different from that of the Ganges.
नर्मदायै नमः प्रातः नर्मदायै नमो निशि
नमोऽस्तु नर्मदे तुभ्यं त्राहि मां विषसर्पदः
जरत्कार्वोर्जरत्कर्वां समुत्पन्न महायशाः
अस्तीक सत्यसन्धो मां पन्नगेभ्यो अभिरक्षतु
नर्मदायै = To Goddess (river) Narmada;नमः = I bow; my salutations; प्रातः = in the morning;जरत्कार्वोर्जरत्कर्वां समुत्पन्न महायशाः
अस्तीक सत्यसन्धो मां पन्नगेभ्यो अभिरक्षतु
नर्मदायै = To Goddess (river) Narmada; नमो = I bow; my salutations; निशि = during the night;
नमोऽस्तु = I bow and give you my salutations; नर्मदे = Oh! Narmada river;
तुभ्यं = to you; त्राहि = Save me; protect; मां = me; विषसर्पदः = from the poisonous snakes;
जरत्कार्वोर्जरत्कर्वां = the wife of Jaratkaru; समुत्पन्न महायशाः = people of great renown;
अस्तीक = To the sage Astika; सत्यसन्धो = One bound to speak or defend the truth; मां = me; पन्नगेभ्यो = to or from serpents or snakes; अभिरक्षतु = Let one protect me.
This is a prayer to Goddess Narmada to purify the soul as well as protect oneself from the deadly venum of Snake bite.
"Salutations to the Goddess Narmada, the river Goddess in the morning and in the evening. Oh Goddess I bow to you, I salute you, please protect me from the venomous serpents and purify my soul."
The mythology of associated snake bite goes as follows:
The Mahabharata tells the story of an ascetic named Jaratkaru, who saw some of his ancestors suspended over a deep pit, with their heads downwards on a rope of fiber which was being gradually gnawed at by a rat. On inquiring why they hung down that way, they replied saying that they were his ancestors and were brought to this state because he had not yet got a son to perform certain rites if he continued to remain childless. The rope would break and they would fall through into the pit. Jaratkaru agreed to give up his life as an ascetic and decided to marry a woman who had a name same as his. Once when he visited Nagaloka, Vasuki, the king of serpents, offered his sister Jaratkaru in marriage to the ascetic. They had a son named Astika who came to be the protector of Serpents.
Meanwhile King Parikshit(a descendant of the Pandavas) had died of a serpent bite and his son king Janamejaya ascended the throne of Hastinapura. King Janamejaya bore a deep grudge against serpents and performed the great Sarpa satra yagna that would destroy all living serpents. With the commencement of the yagna, with every spell recited within a mantra, a sarpa would fall into the flames for each "Swaha" oblation. Many serpents perished in the yagna flames, seeing the plight of the remaining nagas, the Naga king approached Jaratkaru for help. Astika was asked to go and stop King Janamejaya from continuing his sarpa satra yagna. Astika promised King Janamejaya that no serpent would venture into a place that is inhabited by people. The serpents are obliged to keep their promise by hitting their heads thrice on the ground. By the recitation of this mantra the serpent's promise comes alive that they will never attack a human being until provoked. The Goddess Narmada is invoked in this prayer to save oneself from serpents.
नर्मदायै नमो निशि
O Goddess Narmada, I bow to you by night.
Related topics:
Bhojeshwar Mandir, Bhojpur, Madhya Pradesh
45 comments:
Kavitha,As far as the translation of the Sanshrit Shloka is concerned "samutpanna mahayasha" I think describes Astik & both the words are his adjectives I am no Sanskrit expert but that is what I feel.The person born of Mr & mrs.Jaratkaru & who is very successful That is "astik" is how I would have translated it
Hi all, Hindu Mythology is all about the unborn and unending Formless Creator, Nadbindu the point source of infinte energy, achieving ‘amrit’ or immortality in physical form also, that is, ‘Heavenly Bodies’, and communicating the ‘Truth’ through the animal world on earth as models, in which Earth is the superior most among planets or heavenly bodies and Shiva in human form is believably the superior most model among animal forms – both only at the end of Satyga through processes of evolution…
It’s known that ‘India’ originally existed as Jambudweep or an island, with the Vindhyas as the highest mountain range that has Amar Kund, which conveys the perennial source of life-giving water, while Amarkantak (‘kantak’ or ‘shool’ means thorn) conveys the ‘Trishool’ or trident of Shiva, the three axes around which a 3D physical form is developed…for temporary existence, to return eventually at the ‘allotted time’ to their meeting point, thus releasing the soul or ‘bhoot’ for animation in various forms according to a ‘grand design’ decided by Mahakal Shiva on the banks of Narmada, who eventually reached the peak, reflected by 'zero longitude' or the Big Circle passing through Amarkantak, Varanasi, Mount Kailash – indifferent Yugas…
A ‘Hindu’ is conscious of ‘venomous serpents’, just as a ‘scientist’ today could also be with the background knowledge that planet Venus (Shukra for a 'Hindu') has a poisonous atmosphere (and a Hindu is aware of human structure being formed with different permutations and combinations of essences of the solar system to reflect the heriarchy, wherein the essence of ‘shukra’ or ‘poison’ is believably housed within the throat – held there thanks to Ma Gouri that is Parvati, or moon whose esssence is housed in the head...
King Parikshit believably died of snake-bite by a small-sized serpent, named Takshak, on his shoulder. He was the father of Astik, who with his wisdom managed to save the snakes from being exterminated by Janmejaya, Parikshit’s son (to maintain ecological balance!)…and a Hindu knows that Kartikeya the rider of Peacock (blue associated with poison) was also known as ‘Skandha’ or shoulder, conveying him as physically powerfully built, but susceptible to effect of poison in the early days, but rendered ‘amrit’ or immortal by his mother Parvati (moon) at the end of Satyuga…with the help of Ganesha, her second son (essence of Mars), whose vehicle is the rat (the animal that is responsible for damage to foodgrains stored for human consumption), which signifies Ganesha as the one who alone can overcome as ‘vighnaharta’ the destructive force (Red tongue of Kali)…for he has blessings of bother Mothers Kali & Gauri…
Hello Anilji,
You might be right as I have just taken this off the web. The overall meaning seemed right, do let me know if i have to edit any text in the post, I am most willing to do it.
I didnt find your explanation anywhere on the internet in any form, hence the disconnection.
Joshi uncle,
What has been your source of knowledge? Its just incredible, you have an explanation for everything.
I am just discovering places and am so spell bound by them and you very effortlessly have enough and more to explain about these places.
Regds
Kavitha
Hi Kavitha, Hahaha…! You sound like the character of Dr Watson, friend of detective Sherlock Holmes!
But, ‘I’ am not able to say like him, “Simple, Dr Watson!”
‘I’ would only say that Krishna/ Shiva the Bhootnath, being a kind and patient Guru, and living within ‘me’ too, has taken lot of trouble to teach me some lessons…Krishna lead me to the Gita where he says that if you surrender in Him, he would himself lead the ignoramus like me to Him!
Joshi uncle,kavitha,As a doctor I still come across patients of Snake bites that first go to a mantrik for cure waste some precious time of treatment there & land up in the hospitals in a serious state.I do not deny the spiritual or healing powers of mantras but it seems in this Kaliyuga we don't have people of that caliber who can use these mantras.
joshi uncle,kavitha I remember a shloka describing nine great snakes 1.Ananta2.vasuki 3.Shesha4.Padmanabh5Kambal6.Shnakhapal 7.Dhrutarashtra8.Takshaka & 9Kaliya If these names are read twice in the day that is morning & evening there is no danger of any poison says the shloka.I find two names of bhagwan Vishnu Anant & padmanabh in the list.Isn't that interesting?
Dr Anilji, Ananta or Shesha, Vasuki etc believably are ‘celestial serpents’.
Normal serpents or snakes are also called as ‘Vishdhar’, ie, the one who holds poison, and Vishnu (Padmanabha), literally means Vish + Anu, ie, ‘atom of poison’ and Mahashiva is also called Neelkantha, the blue-throated one (due believably to holding poison in the throat - and earth is called the blue planet).
And, Yogis indicate poison to be present in all animal forms in their throat. Many animal forms, even some species of fish are ‘naturally’ poisonous, while many fish and animals become poisonous due to consumption of poison let into water bodies by human beings, such as mercury, which was reportedly found in Ganga water near Kanpur due to presence of tanneries where it is used. And, of course, snakes are the commonly known examples, such as King Cobra and Kraite, although it is believed that 90% of the snakes are non-poisonous. It is also believed that most of the deaths from snake-bites occur due to fear or/ rather panic, therefore although it is a subject of more studies, ‘mantras’ might help in such cases. For it is also reported that a large numbers of ailments is on account of psychosomatic causes…
And, of course, today also people elsewhere (in the west) wonder how ‘Indians’ are able to survive with all their air, water, food items, etc. are all polluted due to human practices, for commercial reasons. Also, we have examples of ‘vishkanya’ or poisonous girls deliberately prepared by Chanakya by feeding Arsenic the slow poison to certain girls right from a young age…
Shiva one of the aspect of Trimurty is called the "Destroyer', and earth is called 'Mrityulok' where death is certain!
As we had earlier also elsewhere seen and discussed, Brahma is believed to have four faces, while both Vishnu & Shiva are depicted to have four arms each, making the total numbers of arms as eight – one each to cover eight directions of the infinite spherical, or near spherical, and expanding space, the dark void of the universe. With the example of earth having a near spherical shape, the base is aparently defined by the South Pole (‘image’ of Nadbindu, located at the centre of earth, for ‘Hindus’) while the head is defined by its North Pole, which is also reflected by the Pole or fixed Star in the ‘sky - within the void of our ‘Milky Way Galaxy’ (‘Kshirsagar for ‘Hindus’) and whose position is indicated by the ‘Saptrishis’ or seven sages for ‘Hindus’, ie, the Great Bear for the ‘present day scientists’...child Dhruva in human form, for the ‘Hindus’, who believably were much more advanced and who ultimately believed in the physical universe to be illusory – a result of Maya created by the Supreme Being! For them ‘I’ is a soul, an image of the Supreme soul, the unborn and the unending all knowing being, Natraja Shiva under whose right foot man the Apsmara Purush (who is unable to recall his own past) is depicted lying dormant!
"Lead the kindly light" that is "Tamaso maa jyotirgamaya..."
Hi Joshi uncle, Anilji,
I have heard of vishkanyas being prepared specifically to poison the enemy after seducing them. I was not aware that the poison used was arsenic. Thats really interesting. Also the association of Vishnu with the atom of poison is indeed an eye opener given Vishnu is given the title of preserver, maybe it needs to be taken in the subtle sense and not literally.
Vishnu with Ananta Padmanabha can bring a very close relation between Vishnu and the science of poison, one that we have not explored yet. Honestly, i never thought of Vishnu in that perspective.
Wow! its indeed been very interesting to read your comments :)
Regds
Kavitha
The ‘wise ancient Hindus’ - who apparently were much more advanced - said “Yatha pinde tatha brahmande”, which the present day scientists, with more and more data becoming available to them, express in the words to the effect that microcosm and macrocosm function on the same principles. The scientists, however, appear to be still groping in the dark, apparently due to the characteristic property of Time, the ‘present’, Kaliyuga the ‘dark age’, which in fact is His Past and is apparently being reviewed by Bhootnath Shiva the Formless Creator, the once ignorant but now the wisest , because of experience gained over billions of years!
Kavitha, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison” explains in the ‘present day’ term what advanced Yogis - with ‘Krishna’ as the Yogiraja, or their king - meant when they said that food itself is poison! And that one should live life surrendering all one’s actions from which there is no escape (categorized generally as sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic, associated with each of the different aspects of the Creator, the Trimurty Shiva as part of a grand design), into ‘Krishna’, the mischievous one who, as the representative of Vishnu in the beginning of the ‘churning’ in Kaliyuga, apparently evolved into Trimurty as his ‘Virat’ or the unending Supreme form, Vishnu…read with the saying, ‘Vishnu is Shiva and Shiva is Vishnu’…
The present day finding of the roots of the Homo sapiens all over the globe appears to have also been indicated by the ‘wise ancient Hindus’, as depicted in the story related with apparent use - by both ‘rakshashas’ (demons) and ‘devtas’ (angels) - of celestial serpent, Vasuki, as rope for ‘churning of the milky ocean’ and with Mandara Hill (presently located in the ‘Dark Continent’, Africa - for the ‘present day historians’) in the middle as the churner, and emergence of ‘halahal’ or ‘kalkoot’ the deadliest poison (perhaps KCn, or Potassium Cyanide, from which evolved the word ‘cyan’, meaning blue)…And, the ‘present’ is beoevd to be Kaliyuga, literally the ‘dark age’ (of minmum efficiency out of all Yugas), as the stories indicate time to move from Satyuga (human efficiency range 100 to 75%) to Kaliyuga (efficiency range 25 to 0%), over 1,000 times during a day in the life of ‘Brahma’ of over 4 billion years (in place of average 12 hours for man, which believably is followed by His night of the same duration as His day)…
With Mahakal Shiva, the believable Controller ot Time in mind, an interesting feature of Hindu mythlogy could be observed from the fact that the present day 12 hours, with each hour having 60 minutes and each minute having 60 seconds (as these were adopted by the ancients also) works out to 43,200 seconds, while ancient Hindus indicate duration of Kaliyuga as equal to 432,000 ‘human years’, and the durations of Dwaper Yuga, Tretayuga, Satya (that is Truth), or Sat (that is essence) Yuga, respectively, as double, triple and four times of it. Thus the total of the four Yugas or a Maha Yuga works out to 4,320,000 years, ie, 4.32 million years. They however assumed such 1,000 cycles of Mahayugas to repeat, each time, from Satyuga to Kaliyuga during a day of Brahma to cover the entire 360 degrees of space and thus imagined 4.32 billiion years as the duration of a day in thelife of Brahma…However, maybe there is need for correction as indicated by the ‘wise ancients’ symbolically adopting 108 rudraksha bead in a rosary, and till recently the ‘Hindus’ ritually prefixed with a person’s name Shri Shri Shri 108 Shri ’xxxx…’ when they exchanged written correspondence…Thus, ‘I’ believe they had originally believed 1,080 such cycles of Mahayuga repeated in a day. It would thus explain why the solar system appears to be in existence already for over 4.32 billion years, ie, around 4.6 billion years. And it is only recently that the phenomenon of ‘global warming’, resulting in melting of snow in the Arctic region (Shiva’s head) and also in the Himalayan glaciers has caused the ‘present day scientists’ to worry for human life…but find helpless before ‘Nature’!
Another important feature of the belief, of humans anywhere in globe, is the believable presence of the Formless Creator everywhere, thus called omnipresent…and all physical forms as His Own Images!
During ‘my’ life, for example, ‘I’ was born in Shimla in the Himachal Pradesh, apparently as a ‘clean slate’. And over some decades ‘I’ have evolved physically and mentally to a relatively higher level, like a mobile computer with increased memory space, and also having natural variety of facilities to exchange information with other computers, say through internet, reading books, and so on, irrespective of my spatial location at any given point in time…and keep on increasing my knowledge till ‘Time’ that is Mahakal Shiva, who resides within ‘me’ too, permits ‘me’…
Talking of poison that emerged in the beginning of Kaliyuga, and serpents, as per a belief, the ‘western world’ believes ‘Adam’ to be responsible for all the sufferings in the ‘present day’ humans! Adam’s apple in the throat reminds them of the Satan (Misnomer of Saturn?). And interestingly, ‘Hindus’ believe essence of planet Venus that is Shukra to be housed in the throat of human form…
As per their thought, God had created Adam after He had created the beautiful environment in Eden Garden for him to enjoy, but on the other hand also cautioning him not to eat the ‘forbidden fruit’, the apple! However, as it is natural with all humans, he was soon fed up with the scenic beauty. God then created Eve from his own rib, for Adam to overcome the boredom he was feeling earlier. And, as it is human weakness, and there exist agencies that help one to tread the believably ‘right path’, there also are Gurus who are sadists, and they apparently being more powerful in distracting the attention they are responsible for temptations and therefore divert one on the ‘wrong path’. Therefore, Satan, in the form of serpent, through the medium of Eve made Adam eat the Apple!
In the ‘present’ also the ‘western scientists, perhaps therefore appear to consider grandfather figure to be responsible for their suffering. They therefore apparently have what they call as ‘grandfather syndrome’ with the advancement in technology with the belief that ‘Time Travel’ could soon become possible and then one could travel back in the past and kill one’s grandfather and save oneself the ‘sufferings’ in th e’present’ (An alternative to attain ‘moksha’!?)…
With the above background, here is another reaction to an article appearing in ‘my newspaper’ sent by ‘me’…
This has reference ot the apparently 'Mind Opener' article by Shri Mukul Sharma, No future in it (28/4).
Only a 'Hindu', who believes in Formless Creator (Nirakar, who is present within all physical forms too) to be perfect and also mischievous, can visualize, i.e., read between the lines the significance of wise ancients' concept of Bhootnath Shiva, Or Mahakal Shiva the Nadbindu reviewing His Own Stories...Yes, there is no future in it because it is History!
With the background story about Adam, and his wife Eve created by God from Adam’s own rib, could bring to the mind of a ‘Hindu’ the belief about Androgynous God, Shiva the Ardhanarishwar. He believably lost His original consort, Sati, in ‘sacred fire’. In the interest of continuity of life, He believably remarried Parvati, yet another form of His first wife at another time, and Kartikeya their first son was born, who was physically strong.
Similarly, if a ‘scientist’ was also a seeker he/ she could have found it similar to the ‘present day’ finding of Moon to have evolved from Eart-Moon itself. And, maybe he/she could realize why ‘wise Hindus’ believed man as model of the universe…or ‘and image of God (as per Bible)…
The story related with Treta Yuga, about victory of Lord Rama over Ravana the King of ‘swarna’, or Golden, Lanka, indicates the ‘monkey army’ to have created ‘Ramsetu’ the bridge that helped monkey Sugriva’s army commanded by ‘Pavan-putra’ the son or air, i.e. Hanuman, march over to Lanka, rout ‘mayavai’ Ravana’s army and release Sita from the ‘demon’s’ clutches!
And, it is therefore interesting to observe that the ‘present day west’ indicates Ramsetu to in fact be Shiva’s (Adam’s) Bridge! And, naturally in Kaliyuga it wouldn’t have been completed, as it presents itself today!
And, as we have already seen earlier elsewhere also, (many times perhaps), ‘Hindus’, (related with ‘Indu’ the Moon whose essence believably is housed within the head of humans in ‘Sahasrara chakra’), used Shivlinga as a symbol of the believable energy, Nadbindu the Formless Creator. A component of it believably lies dormant in innumerable animal forms too (symbolically represented by ‘Koti’ or Crores, that is, innumerable lingas). It is symbolically considered comparable to a serpent lying coiled up at the base or ‘mooladhar’ - in a super conscious state - ready to spring up at the slightest provocation to attack its predator/ dance to the tune of a superior soul with its hood raised up. This latter phenomenon was believably symbolic of the ‘activation of the kundalini’ or raising of energy - along the ‘Merudanda’ the spinal column (that houses the Central Nervous system) - which is stored in the 7 numbers ‘chakras’ within the human form. These, when added to the balance energy in the brain, believably resulted in ‘enlightenment’ in the concerned individual (instrument)…
“Alls’s well that ends well.”
The concept of advancement in the material development, starting from some form of indestructible and complex form of energy, is conveyed through the ‘Hindu’ mythological story of ‘churning of the milky-ocean’ – a wonderful design executed perfectly despite ups and downs during the intermediate stages (also perhaps incorporated in the grand design)…
In the first stage, initially, deadly poison is indicated to have emerged (which gets reflected in the human life also, in the form of failures, whenever some ‘new’ project is undertaken). With continued efforts, based on experience gained over time, and with apparent ‘luck’ too, improvement in the working conditions and streamlining is depicted in the 2nd and 3rd stages. It is only in the 4th and the final stage that the stories indicate the apparent goal of the Creator, ie, attaining near immortality for the physical forms also, through repetitive cycles of creation, sustenance and transformation – and reviewing it eternally from all possible, innumerable, view-points under different varying circumstances and at different temporal and spatial locations…as reflected by transformation of 'India' starting from Narmada and Vidndhyas to Ganfga and tehHimalayas...
As it is a matter of representation of energy through symbols, Narmada, to ‘me’ appears to represent both male and female animal forms: ‘Nar’ means the male species, and ‘Mada’ the female!
As it is a matter of representation of energy through symbols, Narmada, to ‘me’ appears to represent both male and female forms: ‘Nar’ means the male species, and ‘Mada’ the female!
We have already seen how Vishnu and Shiva together represent eight hands of ‘Parvati’ the consort of Shiva…
Another interesting feature indicated in the ‘Hindu’ mythological stories is the apparent role of Mahashiva’s third aspect, Brahma, And his fifth ‘detached head’ in the ‘Sky’ (Sun, representing the element ‘Fire’) - besides his four faces in material form and, therefore, four heads, all meeting at one point as the joint formless head, as reflected by the apex of the man-made pyramid that is otherwise attached to the ‘Earth’, but helps entrap energy within it on account of it shape and orientation…and also similarly conveying the believable advice to man to maintain attachement with detachment…
Perhaps the above-mentioned characteristic property of a pyramid shape, irrespective of its material component and oriented at any location such that each of its four triangular sides face one of the four Cardinal directions (N-E-W-S) to entrap solar energy or ‘fire within’, would explain why ‘Hindu Yogis’ recommended one to face either East or North (the directions that can be relatively easily determined - from the position of rising sun in the day and the pole star in the night…And because Yogic exercises ar performed during the early day, the front of the human body is nominated as the Eastern side, and so on…And, the four heads of Brahma, ie, the four sets of 8 members of the solar system, whose essences are believed to go into the formation of human body that are believably located at different levels of the form are attempted to get concentrated at the apex, that is the head or brain designated by the ‘sahasrara chakra’ that is the location from where 1,000 channels apparently flowed down at the end of the Satya Yuga when churning of the milky-ocean was believably completed to achieve immortality by Heavenly Bodies or the members of the solar system thanks to Moon, or Parvati in human form as its model, or the ‘eight-handed’ consort of Shiva (also called Durga, literally the ‘fort’ within which Shiva could fearlessly go into long smadhi while enjoying moonlight or ‘somrus’ the ‘amrit’!)…
On the 25th Baisakha, the birthday of Pandit Ravindra Nath Tagore is celebrated. He said, "Jodi tore dak sune koi na ashe/ Taube ekla chalo re." That is, if no one joins you/ March alone!
It might be added that ‘wise ancient Hindus’ considered all mounds and mountain ranges as ‘shakti-peetha’ that is centres of energy. Thus ‘India’ abounds in temples from time immemorial that generally have ‘vimanas’, which are pyramid shaped...
In pyramids, solar/ cosmic or atomic energy (that is produced due to explosion of Hydrogen gas in the core of the stars) gets concentrated, which is believably absorbed by the cylinder shaped Shivalinga installed in the ‘garbha-griha’ the sanctum sanctorum (reflecting ‘mooladhar’ in human forms) and released for the benefit of the visitors to the temple for their souls (‘Atma’) to attain higher level. Temples, in general, used to be made at isolated locations and on top of naturally available hills in ‘ancient India’ - far away from the crowded habitats to avoid interference and thus loss of energy and thereby not serving the intended purpose!
And perhaps therefore these edifices have just become places of interest only for the ‘tourists’ – ‘locals’ or ‘foreigners’ – due of course to the characteristic property of Time, or Mahakal Shiva, related with Kaliyuga!
I might add that a German girl studying in UK had once similarly quoted in an email - to my daughter and me - an English writer (name and exact quote forgotten!) to the effect that ‘when you go alone you can do it whenever you are ready. However, you will have to wait if you want others to accompany you’…I wondered at that time whether Tagore was inspired by him, or was it vice versa?
During ‘my’ stay in the northeast region, ‘I’ had the occasion to participate as a spectator in celebration of a few birth birth anniversaries of Tagore by Bengali workers in the middle of the Seventies, and also pass by Bolpur Railway Station a few times. And, thanks to ‘my’ poor GK, perhaps it was before the second time that ‘I’ accidentally happened to learn that Bolpur was the place where Tagore’s world famous Shantiniketan - literally the ‘house of peace’ - is located! And therefore,’I’ took special care to at least see the station with regard and respect for the elevated soul when the train halted there! However, it too - reportedly due to a few disturbing events in the recent past - hasn’t apparently been that peaceful in the ‘present’…thanks believably to ‘Time’…
Hi Joshi Uncle
I dont quite agree with the analysis that temples were built far from human habitats on hilltops. When the power centers were established in earlier yugas, there were no temples to cover them. Most of the jyotir lingas are not in hilly regions but are equally potent.
Fighting back the success of Buddhism, the brahmanical cult had began to explore temple making along hill sides following the chaitya and vihara architecture that had taken the society by storm.
But there are plenty more temples that dont belong to hill sides. Temples in the Aihole, Pattadakkal belt temples in Tamilnadu under the Cholas, Temples in orissa and MP have no hills to talk about around them, they are quite simply all over the place.
Some were built on hill tops as a result of a divine vision in a dream or something relatively similar. I agree with the part of secluded temples but not with the part of hill tops.
Regds
Kavitha
Hi kavitha, ‘I’ am glad to see your comment! ‘I’ had started getting a feeling that ‘I’ alone existed - talking to myself!
‘I’ had earlier indicated elsewhere that many of the temples came up where some ‘miracles’ were apparently reported, such as Jageshwar Temple in Uttarakhand, where a devotee believably received immediately whatever was desired…
Of course, as Krishna is mischievous some found ways to create ‘miracles’ by apparently foul means to grab land! Existence of suitable caves for meditation, or rocks made material for building temples and idols available, viz., limestone, granites, and marble etc. at certain loctions.
However, with the passage of time, certain persons, like Vivekanand say, realzed that it wasn’t necessary to visit teertha or pilgrimage sites to reach the ‘Truth’ as it was a matter only of looking inwards, for God lives within all and sundry and that’s why a ‘Hindu’ merely folded his palms and says Namaste, meaning that I pray to the God within you!
And, anyway man-made buildings by and large do not stand long and one might get to see 'today' some that have stood the vagaries of 'Nature' for over a few thousand years only...in the ever changing exterior earth...
Earth is the most beautiful Heavenly Body in our galaxy – in the words of astronomers! And, ancient Hindus said “Satyam Shivam Sunderam” that is ‘Shiva’ alone is the Truth and He alone is beautiful…And Yogis realized earth as ‘mithya jagat’, or an illusory market where only lies are sold!
All said and done, “To err is human and to forgive divine,” explains man as ‘imperfect’ and only God as all knowing and ‘perfect’!
To explain ‘imperfection’ in humans, (vis-à-vis perfect appearing earth), appearance of man generally as relatively the superior most among all animals, at all times, believably gave man a feeling of ego. However, the ‘wise ancient Hindus’ conveyed earth and life upon it to be illusory - like the ‘make-believe world’ of cinema whereby all spectators get to see films shot in the past and apparently projected on the ‘silver screen’ any numbers of time in the relative ‘future’. But, each time conveying to the spectator a feeling as if the projected events were happening just then!
This could bring one to the basic question: Who am I?
The ‘wise ancients’, realizing the Absolute Truth’ of existence of the one and only Supreme Formless Being, the Bhootnath that is the Lord of the Past, conveyed each and every person to be an image of the Bhootnath, ie, a ‘bhoot’ – just as ‘I’ have innumerable images of my exterior forms in my album right after my birth - at different times, different locations, and in different dresses, and so on…all of which I call myself!
There was an interesting article received through an e-mail at the following site.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HealthSci/Religion_a_figment_of_our_imagination/articleshow/2990050.cms
‘My comments’, were sent in two parts, because as suspected and expected these can't see the light of the day, for to the ‘present day editors’ who control the media God is ‘eccentric’!
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Being a ‘Hindu’, I agree with all views expressed by different writers! For - as understood by Shakespeare also - these are the innumerable parts of the script prepared by the one and only Supreme Being who considered through models various aspects in the long lost past before attaining ‘perfection’ - in the form of innumerable galaxies that fill the infinite void of the universe, which helps in representing the unending Formless Creator as His/ Her vital organs!
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At least ‘we’ are convinced today that the infinite void filled with innumerable galaxies, called the universe, exists since time immemorial and it continues to expand incessantly like a huge balloon, unendingly.. Whereas, human existence on 4.6 billion years old planet earth comparatively is like ‘a flash in the pan’…and yet we have the capacity to talk big! Maybe, one needs first to explain who we are!
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Krishna/ Bhootnath Shiva is mischievous!
In Bhagavad Gita, ‘Yogiraja Krishna’ is depicted - in the middle of the battle field of Mahabharat the globe - counselling a depressed Arjuna the ‘expert archer’ of his time, or a typical model in Dwaperyuga (of maximum 50% efficiency) of Sun the heavenly body from which sunrays naturally shoot off in all directions - a phenomenon similar to arrows flying away from an archer’s bow.
[And interestingly, bows are also used as symbols in the ‘myths’ to depict the influence range of the gravitational force of a heavenly body, such as the one around the earth, ie, Shiva or Vishnu the centre of earth…]
Unlike his friend Krishna the ‘Siddha’, that is, an all-rounder, ‘Arjuna saw only the eye of the bird and not the whole bird’ when he aimed his arrow to strike it.
Krishna told him that all wrong actions result from lack of (overall) knowledge. And He, therefore, revealed to him the secret of ‘maya’ that is illusion, whereby although the entire creation in reality is within Him (the Nadbindu or a point source of infinite energy, at the centre of Earth/ Universe), but because of Maya He is seen by each and everyone to reside within oneself!
And further interestingly, perhaps because of Maya that is illusion, earth understood as ‘mithya’ that is a lie, and also Krishna understood as mischievous, the Gita is used in the courts of law for taking oath by ‘born Hindus’ – apparently mostly to tell lies only!!! And hence the concept of ‘Absolute Truth’ mooted by characters called ‘Vedantis’, that is, existence of one and only Supreme Being, who unfortunately for us life forms is formless!
And Krishna, born in a prison in Mathura on the banks of River Yamuna (that earlier believably drained into the Arabian Sea, but is now a tributary of River Ganga that emerged with the emergence of Himalayas from under the seabed), brought up in Gokul among the cowboys and milk-maids, and believably educated in Sage Sandipini’s hermitage on the banks of Narmada. He apparently patented the art of churning of milk to extract cream from it to help in ‘material advancement’ of the inhabitants of Gokul/ Mathura in the present day Uttar Pradesh and thus enjoy - as its fruit - playing flute and dance with milk-maids in the shade of Kadamba trees in Brindaban (as a model of our ‘Milky Way Galaxy’)!
And, gradually step by step gaining in strength, He consequently ruled over his empire from Dwarka on the coast of Gulf of Kuchchh/ Arabian Sea in the present day Gujarat, in ‘west India’ as ‘Neelamber’ or the King with a peacock feather in His crown!
However, he believably eventually evolved as Peetamber to rule over the whole earth (as Moon)...
‘OM’ is used by ‘Hindus’ since time immemorial as the symbolic representation of the Formless Creator, Nadbindu the point source of infinite energy, generally represented by the female form - of Mother Jagadamba, literally the mother of earth. Of course, She is also called by thousand other names too as Her Own Images at different times and references…As it’s well known a child, also Her image (an image in a mirror gets inverted along the vertical axis, ie, the right side appears as left, and vice versa) reflecting Her Own childhood or beginning of churning, always calls for help its mother, “O Ma!”
Therefore, because of time is believably traveling backwards towards the beginning of churning, ie, Kaliyuga the Dark Age, it is interesting to notice that the image of ‘O-MA’ would appear as ‘MAO’ (as reflected by the only Hindu state for centuries till recent times is now taken over by ‘MAO'!)…
O MA! Tamso Maa jyotirgamaya!
Also the numerical symbl used to represent ‘OM’ is ‘3’ the Trimurty Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh the three axes around which their meeting point believably develops to result in the illusion of physical forms. The yoga or fusion of numeral ‘3’ and its image results in the numeral ‘8’ that is related with ‘Yogiraja Krishna’ the representative of Yogeshwar Vishnu, who is represented graphically in human form that reclines on the bed of celestial serpent Shesha/ Ananata (that represents the balance infinite energy even after creation of the infinte universe by him!)…Therefore, it is a funny coincidence that mathematicians even in the ‘present day west’ blindly continue to copy the ‘ancient Hindus’ (perhaps that are called by them as Arabic in the ‘present cycle of life’, because ‘India’ believably happens to be the source of numerals, and therefore ‘Vedic mathematics’ followed through eons and symbolically represent infinity with the numeral ‘8’ written horizontally, ie, reclined!
And due to mischievousness of Krishna, the neelamber who rules the direction ‘west’, the ‘present day westerners’ call ‘Hindus’ as ‘blind followers’ and consider them as primitive! They, and also even the majority of ‘born Hindus’ today are apparently blind despite their apparent 6/6, or 20/ 20, eye-sight fail to see the significance of ‘Time’ indicated by those very primitive Hindus (who in fact were ‘advanced’ or ‘siddhas’) to be moving from Satyuga to Kaliyuga! And, speaking frankly, ‘I’ too could realize it not very long ago when ‘I’ relatively recently sought to visualize the significance of the white snake ‘I’ saw in the headlight of a moving vehicle in the northeast India that appeared to ‘me’ standing with its hood raised and move backwards towards the valley end!
The above might sound the words of an 'eccentric', but the knoledge of the universe to be expanding like a huge balloon obviously conveys the universe to be expanding around a point, ie, its centre (where Nadbindu alone is housed). And, therefore, any point within it, at any location other than its centre, in fact is 'eccentric', but believing itself as the only sane individual might even consider God as 'mad' or 'eccentric'!
Some people are often heard to say that either they don't believe in Him, or try to find fault with the 'creation' (according to 'wise Hindus', becauze of 'Maya' that is illusion or faulty apparatus for vision as per a grand design!
The choice of word by 'wise ancient Hindus', ‘Amarkantak’, suggests the believable existence of ‘Trishool’, ie, the Trident associated with Shiva, the earth, or Mahashiva the solar system. In the latter, Shiva could be visualized as the meeting point of the three axes or ‘Trident’ provided by Venus (elder son Kartikeya, the favourite son of Shiva-Parvati, the right shoulder of his Ma), Moon (wife Parvati, or Ma Gouri) and Mars (Ganesha, the favourite son of his Ma, Parvati, who also had the blessing of Sati the first consort of Shiva/ Ma Kali, ‘who resides at the heart of Shiva’, as the destructive force experienced throiugh an active volcano housed at the core of earth – symbolically represented by a black female female figure that has Red tongue that reflects the red flame that emerges out of a volcano’s crater, called its mouth!)…
“Necessity is the mother of invention”.
There are indications that man gets discarded from time to time, just as, say, man-made machines when they have lived their useful life, which also gets reflected in obsolescence of certain ‘inferior animal life forms’ who apparently reappear at some other point in time, perhaps because some specimens naturally get preserved in some isolated pockets on earth itself and thus remaining hidden away from humans eyes for some time…Thus indicating life on earth to follow a ‘grand design’ perhaps, by some intelligent being(s)!
Natural refraction of white sunlight (that lights up only one half of planet earth at any given point in time, thus leaving half of it in darkness) while passing through water vapours in earth’s atmosphere - under certain conditions - consequently resulting in the visible spectrum, Red to Bluish purple, that is, Violet, (inevitably in the order represented by alphanumeric symbols ROYGBIV, or the word VIBGYOR – human brain being an analogous computer) becoming apparent to human eyes perhaps inspired some cat-like curious humans to do in-depth studies in the ‘past’. The process apparently continued through centuries to divide human race into two basic categories: ‘scientists’ or ‘experts’ who used external tools to come out with various ‘Truths’; and ‘generalists’, who had the liberty to collect data from various external sources and then seek the essence of the various ‘Truths’ that is the ‘Absolute Truth’ of creation within the self, in the dark space or the ‘Black one’, utilizing the belief that the creator, ‘Krishna’ the dark and mysterious one, itself resides within all forms small or big…
Apparently Red colour (having relatively the highest wave-length out of all the ‘visible’ colours) was perhaps found by the ‘wise ancients’ as the closest visible colour to Black or ‘Kali’/ ‘Krishna’ (also reflected in Sun appearing red just at sunrise as well as sunset time, and also fire when a charcoal is just ignited and which, with the help of air, could even turn white, or normally burn with yellow flame enveloping blue colour within it)…Red is also reflected by the flame/ lava that emerges from the mouth of an active volcano, which could be considerd as a natural means to incinerate discarded life forms that appear in the path of the lava to return the ‘panchtatvas’ back to earth for recycle.
Krishna in the Gita also says that it is the soul within (that is Him) which is relatively more important (for Bhootnath Shiva who eternally seeks something that apparently has remained unknown even to the ‘wisest of the wise souls’ in the past)…
‘Hindu’ mythological stories apparently have the various ‘Truths’ mostly conveyed indirectly through cryptical clues. Thus, even when certain clues were given directly, an average man normally doesn’t believe it to be so. For example, when Shiva was indicated from His description directly pointing to our earth, such as Gangadhara and Chandrashekhara, an average person doesn’t associate Shiva with Earth…Of course, that also is true because all forms are believed as Untruths or lies, that is ‘mayavi’ or illusory – the real Shiva being Formless, and therefore having Bhootnath as one of His thousands of names…and all forms as its image that is bhoota or a thing of the past - a ghost.
The present day astronomers experience this phenomenon in the form of believable vision of light from a extremely distant star at a time when the star might already have ceased to have existed long ago!
The star that might have ceased to exist in the ‘present’ would obviously have a ‘past’ and therefore a history, perhaps an interesting one during its possible billions of years of existence. And we know that even then it is not the end of it, for stars, depending on their relative mass compared to our sun, might get transformed into a Neutron star, or a ‘White Dwarf’, or a ‘Black Hole’. And Hindus believed similarly all animal forms to acquire different forms one after another in a predetermined cycle, because the exterior form is only illusory – it is the soul within that is the VIP – as per Krishna in the Gita…Dhruva believably reached the sky in the form of the Fixed Star in order to guide humans at night, particularly the marines...
Once a person is not too rigid like a rusted instrument and can accept that ‘animal life forms’ have in their heads the essence of Moon, it could be easier to understand how ‘inferior animals’ in fact are ‘superior’ to humans for they are, naturally, directly connected with the moon and hence Penguins and Pigeons are observed to have better sense of dirction. Certin species of marine life, viz. Whales and Sharks, can communicate with each other even when separated by large distances without any external tool (a facility that is believably available in humans too, but that is rendered dormant due to Time being Kaliyuga, and still it gets sometimes reflected in telepathy between certain persons, particularly mother and child’). And interestingly, ‘wise Hindus’ called birds ‘Pakshi’ – that is related with ‘krishnapaksha’ or ‘shuklapaksha’, the dark or bright phase of moon respectively…and Owl with relatively better night-vision was called ‘wise’! The ‘wise Yogis’ understood the outer vision related with Sun & Venus (white & blue) and inner vision with Moon (yellow with dark space in the background)…
Also planet earth - that is, a ‘spaceship-like’ heavenly body that floats like a ship in water - was called ‘Bhavasagar’ by ‘wise Hindus’ (earth considered as a sea, a believable product of ‘churning of the milky-ocean’ or Milky Way Galaxy under the supervision of Sage Brihaspati that is planet Jupiter, whose essence believably lies at the navel of the human form, as a model of the universe or an image of God)…
Maybe the above could help visualize why ‘wise ancient and yet advanced Hindus’, therefore, gave highest pedestal to Mother Parvati & Ganesha her favourite son who with the blessings of both Mothers Gouri & Kali helped Moonrays to act as ambrosia (for Greeks) or ‘amrit’ (for Hindus) that gave immortality to those who were ‘bhagyawan’ or lucky to receive the food/ drink meant for the (Greek) Gods/ Devtas (members of the solar system) or Bhagwan – as models or ‘True Images’ of the Formless Creator, who alone was originally unending or immortal!
Remaining located on earth, ie, attached to it (Shiva the Bhotnath), ‘we’ the terrestrials (Bhootas), or the transient forms, get to see or visualize with ‘mind’s eye’ one half or 50% of earth every second, day in and day out, remaining illuminated by our Sun (detached fifth-head of Brahma)…Whereas, Moon (Parvati) appears to expand the phenomenon over one month, that is, it virtually stretches time, and ‘we’ the terrestrials get to see only once in a month the fully dark or fully bright side of the satellite of earth…
In the ‘past’ Yogis, inspired by fish and birds, attempted to get enlightened by Moon directly by allowing the entire energy believably locked up at different levels within human form to get concentrated at the ‘sahasrara chakra’ in the head through zero thoughts. However, because we have ‘advanced’ today and, therefore, we believe in using numerous models of moon instead to collect information the harder way (that is moon-like geocentric satellites that last for a few years only and thus litter the space to the disadvantage of the whole human race when these return home!)…Krishna says that all wrong actions result from lack of knowledge!
And interestingly, ‘my newspaper’ informs me that today the 5th May it is (only) the 38th Sahasrara Day!!
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