DIVINEINFORMATION PART 2 Dear friends ,
While going through one of my external memory device, 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. Inpart 1 I have covered six items. So I am starting with seventh item in this posting. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 11-05-2021 7 GANESHA Ganesha has an elephant's head, four to ten arms, a pot belly, and is usuallyred or yellow in colour. His vehicle is a rat. In his hands he holds a rope, anaxe, a goad, a dish of sweet-balls etc. The fourth hand, is in the boon givingposition. It is said that with the axe Ganesha cuts off the attachment (to worldlythings) of his devotees and with the rope pulls them nearer to the Truth. A son of Shiva, he is one of the mostpopular gods and is called ‘the remover of obstacles’. He is worshipped at the start of a ritual or thebeginning of a journey. Endowed with a gentle and affectionate nature heis also known as a god of wisdom. His images are found in practically everyhousehold and also on the outskirts of villages, as a guardian deity. Heis the Lord of the Brahmacharis (celibates). There are several accounts ofGanesha's birth. Accordingto one, Parvati, wife of Shiva created him from the scruff of her body to guardher door and when Ganesha refused to admit Shiva, the god cut off his head. Onseeing Parvati distressed about this, Shiva promised to replace the head withthat of the first living being he would chance upon. This happened to be anelephant. Accordingto another account, Ganesha was conjured out of a piece of cloth by Shiva to produce a son for Parvati. Later Shiva broughtabout the boy's death by decapitation, and then in order to placate Parvati, hecalled on the gods to find him a new head. After much searching theygave him an elephant's head. The tuskbroke when it was cut from the elephant's body, therefore Ganesha is normally shown with a brokentusk. The symbolism sometimes alluded to himis that his obesity contains the whole universe, his trunk isbent to remove obstacles and his vehicle the rat can creep through small holesto achieve the same goal i.e. remove obstacles to reach religious ends. Manifestations of Ganesha Accordingto the Ganesha Purana, Lord Ganesha had four manifestations. Inthe manifestation Mahakota Vinayaka he has ten hands, is riding a lion and isdazzling with brilliance. Shri Mayuresh has six hands, is fair complexioned andis riding a peacock. Shri Gajaanana has four hands, is riding a mouse and iscrimson coloured. Shri Dhoomraketu has two hands, has a smoke-colouredcomplexion and is riding a horse. Anothergroup of eight incarnations are: (1) Vakratunda, riding a lion, (2) Ekadanta, (3)Mahodara, (4) Gajaanana, and (5) Lambodara, all riding on a mouse. (6) Vikata,on a peacock, (7) Vighnaraja, riding on the serpent Sesha and (8) DhoomraVarna, like Shiva. Apartfrom the above, Ganesha has thirty-two other manifestations. Popular amongst them are Vighnesh(remover of obstacles), Ekadanta (the one-toothed one), Modakpriya(one wholoves sweets), and Ganapati (head of the semi-divine Ganas). The most fearsome incarnation of Ganesha is that ofVinayaka, who is said to bring about catastrophe, and madness . Festival:Ganesh-chaturthi Ganesh-chaturthi (August-September) isobserved all over India, particularly in Maharashtra state to celebrate thebirth of Ganesha. A clay idol of Ganesha, sometimes eight metres high, isbrought in the house, worshipped for two to ten days and then taken out in aprocession and immersed in the sea or a lake. Coconuts and sweetened flour-balls are offered to him Devotees are advised not to look at the moon on this day asit had behaved unbecomingly towards Ganesha once. The moral interpretation of this symbolism is that oneshould avoid contact with people who have no faith in God and religion. 8 AGNI Agni, the God of Fire, is represented as a red man having three legs, two toseven arms, dark red eyes, thick eyebrows and hair. In his hands he carries aspear, a fan, a cup and spoons and various implements used for fire associated ceremonies. He may have one ortwo heads and a pot-belly. Flames issue from his mouth with which he licks upthe butter which the priest offers to the sacrificial fire. The priest, while pouring butter in the firesummons ‘Svaha’, the consort of Agni, by name. He rides on a ram, wears a sacred thread, a garland offruits and seven streams of glory radiate from his body. Agni is one of the few gods who have retained their supremacy in the Hinduhierarchy of gods, from the Vedic age till today and has the largest number ofhymns addressed to him. He is the priest of the gods and the god ofthe priests and serves as the liaison between gods and men. He presides overall the great events of a person’s life and at the end it is Agni, through theflames of the funeral pyre, who accepts the body as an offering. 9 BALARAMA The brothers Krishna and Balarama were the sons of Vishnuand are sometimes regarded as his joint incarnations. Balarama is normallyshown with two hands holding a club (gada) or a plough, sometimes both. According to the Vishnu-Purana, Vishnu took two of his hairs, one black and the other white, andimplanted them in Devaki’s womb. Shortly before their birth they were miraculously transferred toRohini’s womb in order to prevent the infants from being killed by the tyrantking Kansa. After they were born,it was noticed that the complexion of Krishna was dark and that of Balarama,light. They grew up together but Balarama never became as popular as Krishna. Both brothers seem to have been the most human of all theincarnations. Neither had the saintliness that can be found in Rama and bothdisplayed human weaknesses. Inone incident Balarama ordered the river Yamuna to move closer to him so that itwould be more convenient for him to bathe, and when it did not,bullied it into doing what he wanted by threatening it with his plough. 10 DURGA Durga also is the consort ofShiva, Parvati being the other one. She is one of the most importantfemale deities of the Hindus. She normally has eight arms and may hold any ofthe following items in her hands: a trident, a sword, a snake, a bell, a drum,a shield, a cup, a bow, a wheel, a conch-shell, a mace, an arrow and a waterpot. She is shown seatedin a ‘sukhasana’ (yogic) posture on a double lotus throne or on a tiger/lion.She may wear a garland of skulls. Durga’s relations with Shiva being sufficiently remote, she is worshipped in her ownright. She is referred to as the ‘shakti’ of the Impersonal Absolute andas being worthy of worship for material gains in this world and spiritualadvancement in the next. Durga has ninepopular forms called Nava-Durgas whichare worshipped during the Dussehra festival. They are, Shailaputri,Uma/Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri,Mahagauri and Siddhidhatri. Festival: DurgaPuja/Dussehra. Symbolizing the triumph of good over evil, Durga Puja orDussehra is one of the chief festivals of India celebrated inSeptember-October. It iscelebrated in various parts of India in different styles but the one basic aimof this celebration is to propitiate shakti, the Goddess in her aspect asPower. This is the festival in which the motherhood of God isemphasized. It is a ten-day festival, with each of the nine nights dedicated todifferent aspects of goddess Durga. Basicallythe festival celebrates the victory of Durga over Mahihasura, the demon in theform of a buffalo. In many parts of India a buffalo issacrificed to commemorate this event. The Devi temple is Tana (Chittorgarh) isfamous for this festival. In Northern India, on the tenth day, Dussehra is celebrated, signifyingthe victory of Rama over Ravana, whose effigies are burnt. Elaborate floats arealso taken out. I will continue with Hanuman inthe next 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/1539435601.1974637.1620714029074%40mail.yahoo.com.
