DIVINE INFORMATION2-16 Varaha Purana part 29
Posted by: "DILIP KUMARRAVINDRAN" [email protected] prdili Sun Dec 26, 2010 7:25 am (PST) GOKARNA TEERTH LordVarah told Prithvi about the greatness of Gokarna teerth- "Long long ago there lived a vaishya named Vasukarnat Mathura. Sushila, his wife was deeply religious but in spite of that she wasissueless. One day, she had gone to takeher bath in river Saraswati where she found many women taking their bath nearby with theirchildren. Sushila became very sad and being unable to control her emotions started crying." "Asage saw her crying and asked her as to what made her so sad. Sushila narratedher woeful tale to him. Thesage took pity on her and advised herto worship lord Gokarna. The sage said-'You will definitely be blessed with a son.' Sushila went home andnarrated the whole incident to herhusband. Both of them started worshipping lord Gokarna Mahadev with total devotion. After ten years, a son was bornto them. Vasukarn named thatchild after lord Gokarna to express his gratitude to the deity." "In course of time, Gokarna grew upand got married but even after a long time he did not have a progeny. o,his father married him to three morewomen, one after another, but even this did not prove to be of any help to Gokarna because he remained asonless person. This made Gokarna verysad and he engaged himself in various charitable activities thinking that the virtues thus attained mightbless him in begetting a son. He got constructed many temples andordered wells to be dug up for thebenefit of the travelers. Very soon, all his money was spent and he became worried about the future of hisfamily. So, he decided to go to distantplaces to earn wealth." "Once, while on his journey he met a divine parrot whopossessed tremendous knowledge. Gokarna was very much impressed by the parrot's knowledge. He askedthe parrot from where had it imbibedsuch divine knowledge. Theparrot revealed to him that he was Shukodar in it's previous birth and was a learned man. He had attained theform of parrot due to the curse of sage Shukdev. But, sage Shukdev had been kindenough to allow him to retain all theknowledge in his next birth. The parrot also told Gokarna how it had been kept inside a cage by a fowler andrequested him to help it out from thecaptivity." "Gokarnarequested the fowler to give the learned parrot to him. The fowler agreed butasked for all the virtues attained by Gokarna in return. Gokarna happily agreed to donate all his virtues andproceeded with that parrot. Now, Gokarna had become bereft of allhis virtues he had attained so far.Once, while he was on a voyage in connection with his trade the ship was caught in a severecyclone and the chances of survivallooked very bleak. All his fellow travelers had a misconception that they had been struck by the misfortuneonly because of Gokarna's sins. Theparrot was saddened after hearing what people said about his master. It decided to help him and flew away towards north.While flying it found a vishnu templewhere many divine women and other creatures had gathered to worship. The descendants ofJatayu were also among them. The parrotnarrated the woeful tale of his master to all of them .All the divine birds decided to help Gokarna." "Thedivine birds instructed the parrot to follow them and then flew towards the place where Gokarna's ship wasstranded. Finally, they were successful in rescuing Gokarna and bringinghim back to the same temple. Gokarnaworshipped lord Keshav and performed the rituals of tarpan in the name of hisancestors. In the meantime, all the divine women also arrived there to worship. They were pleased tomeet Gokarna and gave him divine food toeat. They also allowed him to stay there for as long as he wished." "Meanwhilethe ship managed to reach the sea shore. Gokarna's companions met his parents and narrated the wholeincident to him. Gokarna's parents werefilled with sorrow at the fate of their son. On the other hand, Gokarna continued to live in thattemple for a long period. He was worried about his father as it had been a longtime since he saw him. He sent the parrot to bring his news. The parrotflew away to Mathura and met his father-Vasukarn. Vasukarn thankedthe parrot for saving his son's life.The parrot then flew back on his return journey and gave the good news toGokarna.""One day Gokarna found the divine ladies extremely sad. Whenasked, they told him that the king of Ayodhya had destroyedthe beautiful gardens of Mathura andthis was the reason for their sadness. Gokarna assured them that he would convince the king to abandonhis evil plan if he got a chance to meethim. The divine women thenprovided Gokarna with a divine aircraft boarded on which he reached Mathura.Gokarna met the king and managed toconvince him against destroying beautiful gardens. The king wasextremely impressed by his knowledge and presented great amount of wealth tohim. This way all the divine women became happy once again." "Gokarnathen went home and met his family members. His parents and his wives were verypleased to see him. Gokarna then got constructed a shukdev temple to honor his savior-thelearned parrot. It was only because of that parrot that he couldacquire such wisdom and knowledge. Toexpress his gratitude to the fowler he donated all the virtues he had acquired by taking bath in the holyconfluence(triveni) because had it not been for the fowler he would never havegot the knowledgeable parrot. Gokarna lived happily for a long time Varaha Purana part 30 Posted by: "DILIP KUMARRAVINDRAN" [email protected] prdili Wed Dec 22, 2010 2:28 am (PST) IDOL MADE OF WOOD Prithvirequested lord Varah to describe the proper methods of installing various types of idols. Lord Varah replied that adevotee desirous of making a wooden idol must selectthe wood of 'Bassia latifolia' for his purpose. The wood should bepurified and then given shape as per theappearance of the deity. The idol is then installed in a temple amidst the performance of appropriate.During installation ceremony variousarticles like camphor, vermillion, sandalwood, incense, etc. are offered to thedeity. The swastikamark is a sign of auspiciousness so thedevotee must keep this in mind while giving shape to the idol. Thisswastika mark must be carved out on the idol. Similarly, other signs of lordVishnu like 'srivatsa' and' kaushtubh' should also be carved out on the idol. Lord Vishnu is theninvoked and requested to dwell withinthat idol by chanting mantras. After the deity has been invoked, the 'wood' no longer remains alifeless structure but it becomes theembodiment of the deity. The idol is then considered to be fit for worship. While worshipping, a devotee should offer a bhogaof kheer to the deity. Burning a ghee or sesame-oil lamp in front of the deity is considered good. The devoteeshould then circumambulate around thetemple premise. While circumambulating, he should keep on chanting the sacred mantra 'om namo narayanaya'. Theidol thus installed should be worshippeddaily without failure." STONE- IDOL "Aproficient sculptor should be chosen to carve out the deity's shape from a pure and spotless stone .First of allthe sculptor should clearly draw the outline of deity's appearance on the stonewith a marker and then carefully carveit out from the stone. Theidol is then purified by sprinkling'akshat' on the deity's idol. While worshipping a devotee should burn a ghee lamp and invoke lordVishnu to dwell in that idol by chanting the sacred mantra-om namo narayanaya.The installation of idol being complete he should observe a fast forthe whole night. Next morning, afterfinishing his daily chores he should put on white clothes and change his old 'yagyopavit' with a newone. The idol thus made is consideredfit to be worshipped .Purva-bhadrapad is considered to be the best time for the installation of astone-idol .During the course of installation ceremony, a devotee should liveeither on milk or cereal like barley.The rituals of worship consist of numerous activities like lighting four lampsin front of the deity, keeping four small pots each filled up with articleslike 'panchagavya', water, sandalwood and milk. The rituals of worship areconsidered to be incomplete without thechanting of vedic mantras." 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