QUES ANSW DIVINE 05-2022-09 Dearfriends,
Theseare information compiled as QA by me in 1998’s-2004’s and stored in mycomputer. They are posted by very learntmembers. BEING COMPILATIONTHERE MAY BE ERRORS. Sincerely, R. Gopalakrishnan, 78, dated 13-05-2022 Q1 What is Dasavataram? A1 Lord Vishnu is said to have manifested himself invarious incarnations, called Avatars, for the destruction of evil orrestoration of faith and justice in the world. These incarnations are said to have been in the human form,in the animal form and even in the combined human-animal form. It is believed that out of the tenincarnations (called Dashavatar) that are popularly believed in, nine havealready been manifested while thetenth is yet to appear. This list is included in the Garuda Purana (1.86.10-11)and denotes those avatars most prominent in terms of their influence on humansociety. The first four are said to have appeared in the Satya Yuga (the first of the four Yugas or agesin the time cycle described within Hinduism). The next three avatars appeared in the Treta Yuga, the eighth incarnation in the DwaparaYuga and the ninth in the Kali Yuga. The tenth is predicted to appear at the end of the KaliYuga in some 427,000 years time. Also according to the Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana,the Kali-yuga will end with the apparition of Kalki-avatara, who will defeatthe wicked, liberate the virtuous, and initiate a new Satya Yuga. At that time, the Supreme Personality of Godhead willappear on the earth. Acting with the power of pure spiritual goodness, He willrescue eternal religion. Lord the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the spiritualmaster of all moving and nonmoving living beings, and the Supreme Soul of alltakes birth to protect the principles of religion and to relieve His saintlydevotees from the reactions of material work. (Bhagavata Purana) Q2 What is Matsya Avatar - Lord Vishnu in the form of Fish ? A2 In the first incarnation the Lord rescued the Vedasduring the apocalypse, saving the most sacred andancient scriptures from the demon Sankhasura, who had stolen the same. Thedemon had the shape of a conch and was hiding in the bottom of the deep ocean.The Lord vanquished the demon and taking the form of a giant Fish, he negotiatedthe turbulent apocalyptic deluge or pralaya with utmost ease. Assuming the character of a boat, the Lordin his Fish form saved the Vedas for his devotees. Q3 What is Kurma Avatar - Lord Vishnu in the form of Turtle A3 In his second incarnation the Lord assumed the form of agiant tortoise. During the process of thenew creation, His vast back was the base on which stood the Mandara Mountain.The latter was used as the staff for churning the milk ocean with the divineserpent Vasuki being pulled by the gods and the demons on two sides. Thisyielded the nectar, the Kamadhenu or the wish-fulfilling sacred cow, theParijata flower and the Airabata elephant among others. The process of churningleft on the vast back of the Lord large calluses in the shape of a wheel. Thewheel mark also indirectly alludes to the celestial wheel, which is a mark ofVishnu-Krishna and the Sudarsana Chakra, their ayudha or weapon. Q4 What is Varaha Avatar - Lord Vishnu in the form of Boar A4 During the apocalyptic deluge mother earth sank to thebottom of the ocean. The Lord emerged as tinyboar from the nasal cavity of Brahma and soon grew in size to huge proportions.He rushed into the raging seato rescue Mother Earth. As he emerged out of the sea, carrying Mother Earth atthe tip of his great tusk, he was challenged by the demon Hiranakshya. The Lord vanquished the demon and killed him. In the Puri temple, the Varaha Avatara isone of the Parswa Devatas, the other two being Trivikrama or Vamana andNarasimha. Mother Goddess Earth isconceived as a spouse of Lord Vishnu-Jagannatha. She is called Bhudevi, and asmall metal image of the Goddess is placed on the Ratna Simhasana in Srimandiraalong with the principal Deities. The exquisitely beautiful visual imagerypresented by Jayadeva brings out the tender love of the divine couple. Q5 What is Narsimha Avatar - Lord Vishnu in the form of Half- Man and Half - Lion A5 As the fourth Avatara, the Lord vanquishedHiranyakashipu, the brother of the demon Hiranakshya, who fought with him in his Boarincarnation. Hiranyakashipu, the demon king was totally opposed to Hari but hisyoung son Prahlada, was devoted to the Lord and constantly chanted Hari Nama.The demon king was furious that his son was devoted to his enemy and forbadehim from doing so. His father in many ways tortured the child devotee withoutany success in changing his loyalty to Hari. The demon king, who had himselfdone great penance had been granted a boon that he could not be killed by manor animal, in day or night and neither inside the house nor outside it. Hetherefore considered himself invincible. Prahlada saw God everywhere and hisfather challenged him by asking if he saw him in the pillar of the palace. OnPrahlada├втВмтДвs reply that indeed the Lord was present there, in a fit of rage, he kicked the pillar and the Lord takingthe form of a Man-Lion, emerged from the pillar. It was the twilight hour, neither day nor night and theLord carrying the demon in one sweeping movement reached the threshold of thepalace. With one foot outside and one inside the house he gored the heart ofthe demon with his sharp nails and killed him at once. Prahlada and Dhruva,another child devotee, are considered as being the greatest of bhaktas. Narasimha is identified with Vishnu and as a cult Deity,predates Jagannatha. The making of the images ofSrimandira was done after initially worshipping Narasimha and a templededicated to him exists close to the Gundicha temple to the east of the sacredIndradyumna tank at Srikshetra, Puri. This is known as the Yagna Narasimhatemple. Within the Srimandira, a temple of Narasimha to the south of theAudience Hall of the main temple stands even today, and this is older than themain temple. This temple has numerous stone inscriptions inscribed overcenturies. Some scholars believe that this was perhaps the original temple andsite where Nilamadhava, the precursor of Lord Jagannatha, was worshipped. Q6 What is Vamana Avatar - Lord Vishnu in the form of aDwarf A6 Bali, a progeny of Prahlada, was a demon king who hadterrorized the gods. He was well known for hischarity and never refused anything asked for as a gift. The Lord took the bodyof a dwarf and approached Bali as a Brahmin seeking alms. When the demon kingtook a vow that he will not disappoint the holy Brahmin and give him whateverhe asked for, the Lord asked for land equal to his three footsteps. With hisfirst step he covered heaven and with his next he covered the whole earth. Theking had no more land to offer and proffered his own head for the Lord to coverhis third footstep. The Lord placed his foot on the head of Bali and pressedhim to the nether world and thus rid the world of the oppression of the demonking. At the same time the Lord emancipated Bali. There are two variations of this theme depicted in sacredart one showing the Lord as a dwarfBrahmin with an umbrella and a kamandalu, a water pot with a spout, and anothershowing the Lord in his normal shape but with one of his legs raised to coverthe skies. Sculptures of the latter, known as Trivikrama, are ubiquitous inOrissan temples and one is worshippedas one of the three principal parswa devatas in the Srimandira. Q7 What is Parshurama Avatar - Lord Vishnu in the form of aBrahmin A7 In his incarnation as Parasurama, the sage and priest, the Lord relieved the agony of the earthsuffering from the excesses of the Kshatriyas, a warrior class. Parasurama means Rama with the Parasu or battle-axe. He was the son of sage Jamdagni, adescendant of Bhrigu, and was a great scholar and master of all the Vedas. Hiswife was Renuka, who bore him five sons, including Parasurama. Once her mindhad been disturbed and excited by the sight of a pair of Gandharvas engaged inlove play. As her thoughts were polluted, she lost her natural lustre.Jamadagni, on noticing this became wild and in a fit of anger ordered his sonsto cut off her head. The first four sons refused to carry out this horriblecommand of their father but Parasurama promptly severed her head with onestroke of his battleaxe without the slightest hesitation. Jamadagni, pleasedwith his loyalty and obedience offered him a boon and Parasurama asked for thelife of his mother to be restored and the sage granted this immediately. Once the king Kartavirya, visiting the hermitage ofJamadagni, took away Kamadhenu, the sacred cow, which could fulfill any wish.On learning this, Parasurama fought with the king and killed him. The sons ofthe king took revenge by killing Jamadagni when Parasurama was absent from theashram. Confronted with this catastrophe, Parasurama took a vow that he would destroy the Kshatriyarace twenty-one times from the earth. Eventually he fulfilled his vow. The sage, although a Brahmin, is considered as one of thegreatest warriors of all times in the legendary accounts. Interestingly a few temples dedicatedto Parasurama can be found in Kerala where he is worshipped as a cult Deity bysome. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. 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