DIVINEINFORMATION PART 1 Dear friends ,
While going through one of my external memorydevice, I came across some good information stored from a website not available now. I thought of sharing interesting ones fromthem as a series. These are short information. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 10-05-2021 1. GANGA The Ganga is the most sacred of India's rivers. Goddess Ganga is represented as afair-complexioned woman, wearing a white crown and sitting on a crocodile.She holds a water lily in her right hand and a lute in her left. When shownwith four hands she carries a water-pot, a lily, a rosary and has one hand in aprotective mode. The story of Ganga's origin is veryinteresting. Sagar, a king of Ayodhya, had no children. On doing a long penancehe was promised, and got, sixty thousand sons. He then decided to perform ahorse sacrifice. Indra, the lord of the heavens, when he heard of this, gotscared and stole the horse and took it to the nether region. The sixty thousandsons reached the nether region after searching the earth for the horse and manhandled a sage by mistake,thinking he had stolen the horse. The sage in anger cursed them and turned themto ashes. Sagar on hearing this prayed to Goddess Ganga to come down to earthand with her water to bring salvation to his sons. His son and grandson also carried outthe penance and it was onlyBhagirath, the great, great grandson, who managed to propitiate Ganga. The Goddess came down on earth in arush, her impact being mitigated by being caught in Shiva's matted hair. Shewas led to the nether regions by Bhagirath. Hence the Ganga is divided into three parts. One part whichremained in the heavens was called Mandakini. Thepart that came down to earth is known as Ganga. Thepart flowing in the nether region is called the Bhagirathi, named after the king Bhagirath. Most of the holy cities of India arelocated on the banks of the Ganga. These are Rishikesh, Haridwar, Varanasi (Benares), Allahabad etc.Those who die within the specified limits of the Ganga go to the heavenlyworld. If after cremation the ashes are thrown into the Ganga, the same purposeis served. No Hinduwould dare speak a falsehood with the Ganga water (Ganga-jal) in his hand. 2 INDRA Indrais the Vedic god of rain and thunder. He is also the king of the gods. He hasfour hands. In one hand he holds a thunderbolt, and in the others aconch-shell, a bow and arrows, a hook and a net. He is also shown as having twohands and eyes all over hisbody, and is called ‘the thousand-eyed one’. Hismount is the king of the elephants, Airavat, who is white in colour and hasfour tusks. In the earlier Vedicperiod Indra was very powerful andwas shown as the protector of cows, priests and even gods. There are more hymnsin praise of Indra than in praise of the other Vedic gods. He has a beautifulconsort, known as Indrani.In the post-Vedic period and during the age of the Puranas, Indra fell from thefront rank of gods and wasgiven a status lower in all respects. Though still the king of the smaller gods, he is inferior to the holytriad of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. At a later stage he is described as the ruler ofSwarga (heaven) where the gods live. At this stage he is shown as having developed humanfrailties. Though not the object of direct worship in temples, heconstantly appears in the tales of religious scriptures. His idol, sitting on an elephant, appears on the wallsof many Vishnu temples. Indira is also the guardian of the East. 3 KAMADEVA Kamadeva, the god of love, is very fair and handsome and thebest looking among the gods. He carries a bow made of sugarcane and strung witha line of humming bees. Heshoots with his bow the five flower-tipped shafts of desire. He is accompanied byhis wife Rati (passion) and his friend Vasanta (spring), who selects for him the shaft to beused on the current victim. Kamadeva’s vehicle is the parrot. Generally describedas the son of Lakshmi and Vishnu,he is also said to be the son of Brahma. Surrounded by beautiful nymphs(Apsaras), he loves to wander around specially in springtime, loosing hisshafts indiscriminately, but with a preference for young girls, married women and ascetic sages. Shiva burned him to ashes as punishment for disturbinghis deep meditation, but Kamadeva’s shaft had gone home and Shiva could notobtain peace until he had married Parvati. During all this time Kamadeva lay dead and love disappearedfrom the earth. At lengthShiva allowed him to be born as the son of Krishna. The god of desirethus fittingly became the son of the other deity in the pantheon associated withlove. 4 KUBER Kuber is the god of wealth and thegods’ treasurer. His white body is dwarfish. He has three legs and eight teeth. He has two tofour hands and may carry in his hands a mace, a purse containing money, a vase,a fruit and a bowl and two hands in the boon giving and protective modes. Ifshown as having two hands he will carry a bowl and a money-bag. Hisbody is covered with jewels and other ornaments. For moving about he has achariot called Pushpak. Kuberis not an important deity and his images are very rarely seen, though heis frequently referred to in the epics. He is also called the god of theYakshas (savage beings). His brother Ravana, by practicing austerities, obtained fromShiva the boon of invincibility and so was able to defeat Kuber and to seize and retain Lanka and thechariot, Pushpak. As Lanka could not be restored to Kuber, Viswakarma, the architect god,built him a palace on Mount Kailash. He also has a beautiful gardencalled Chaitrarath on Mount Mandara. Kuber's domains are all in the high Himalayas, partlybecause he is the guardian of the North, but also because themountains are the repository of mineral wealth. Kuberwatches over the earth'sstorehouse of gold, silver, jewels, pearls and the nine nidhis, specialtreasures. 5LAKSHMI Lakshmi is the consort of Vishnu andthe goddess of wealth and good fortune. She normally has four arms whenworshipped on her own, buthas two when shown with Vishnu. She may hold a lotus in each of herupper hands. Gold coins can be seen dropping down from the palms of her lowertwo hands or one of them may be in a boon-giving posture. She is normally painted in a brightgolden colour and is shown seated or standing on a lotus. In paintings she issometimes shown with two elephants, half submerged in water, one on each side. Lakshmi was born from the churningof the oceans by the gods for ambrosia. Lakshmiis also associated with beauty and is one of the most popular Hindu femaledeities. It is likely that,because of the underlying human desire for wealth, she absorbed a large numberof folk elements during her evolution into a widely accepted member of thepantheon. Some of these may be discerned in thequalities attributed to her as Vishnu's wife in several of his incarnations. As Sita (Rama's wife) she was said to have been bornfrom a furrow, showing her link with agriculture. This symbolism is againemphasized when she is called Earth (Dharani) the wife of Vishnu. 6 NANDI Nandi (the bull) is the vehicle (vahana) of Shiva and isnormally found in all Shiva temples either near the idol or facing it from adistance. It is also placedat the entrance of Shiva temples in a sitting or standing posture. In paintings he is shown pure white. He has a rounded body,large brown eyes, heavy shoulders, a shining coat and a black tail. The hump islike the top of a snow-capped mountain. He has a golden girth round his bodyand sharp horns with red points. Originally, under thename of Nandikeshvara, Nandiseems to have existed in human form as a sage (rishi) who acted as Shiva’s doorkeeper before achieving divine status. The reason for theassociation may have stemmed from Shiva’s relationship with Rudra who wassometimes referred to as the bull. This probably hasroots in the vast mythology and the symbolism surrounding bulls that are foundin ancient cultures. Nandi’s association with fertility is illustrated by thecustom of the devotees touching the feet and testicles of the Nandi idolwhen entering a Shiva temple. I will continue innext posting. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/261926600.1756718.1620639158029%40mail.yahoo.com.
