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Showing posts from February 1, 2019


Goddess Lajja Gauri And Lotus Head - Reason

Goddess Lajja Gauri is a manifestation of Mother Goddess Shakti. She is depicted as a headless woman. Sometimes her head is replaced with lotus flower. Lajja Gauri means shy mother goddess. There are numerous stories associated with Lajja Gauri and Lord Shiva. Majority of the stories are folktales and are not found in Hindu scriptures. This particular folktale is from Karnataka. Once Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati were making love inside a cave. A group of sages entered the cave to take the blessings of the divine couple. Shiva ignored the sages and continued with his lovemaking. The angry sage cursed him to be worshipped in the form of Shivling. Goddess Parvati was embarrassed by the sudden intrusion and she covered her face with a lotus. From that day onward she came to be known as Lajja Gauri. She is associated with fertility. She is also part of tantric worship.

Story of Sage Mahodaya - Even Curse Cannot Take Away Your Knowledge

Sage Mahodaya was the son of Sage Vasishta as per many scholars. However, there are some scholars who are not willing accept this. Such scholars consider him as another Rishi. His name is mentioned in the Ramayana. Legend has it that Trishanku, the king of Ayodhya, once conducted a yajna. The main priest of the yajna was Sage Vishwamitra. The king invited Sage Vasishta and Mahodaya. But there was a deep distrust and fight between Vishwamitra and Vasishta. Therefore, Mahodaya refused the invitation and wrote a message picturing both Vishwamitra and King Trishanku as sinners. This enraged the short-tempered Sage Vishwamitra who cursed him that he would lose his saintly status and become a beggar on earth. Even though Mahodaya Rishi became a beggar in materialistic sense, Sage Vishwamitra's curse had no effect on the knowledge of Mahodaya. He roamed around the earth and those students who were able to see the greatness of the Rishi approached him for knowledge. He share

Shani Bhagavan as Business Partner to Prosper in Business

Business people who are suffering from business loss and wealth related issues are making Shani Bhagavan as their partner. They offer to give a percentage of profit to Shani Bhagavan. Devotees are making the offering of business partnership at a Shani temple located in Sanawad Town in Madhya Pradesh. It is said that Shani Bhagavan here is getting 2%, 5%, 7% and 10% of  the profit from business people. A businessman was bankrupt and he had no option to continue his business. One day he offered to make Shani Bhagavan his partner. Soon his business started flourishing. After this, several people got the blessing of Shani Dev in their business. This practice is now being followed around the world in Shani temples. People are making the deity their business partner and at the end of the financial year, they share the profit with the deity. In South India, it is very common to see people making Lord Balaji (Venkateshwara) their partner in business. People put the deity’s sha

Story - Anger Makes Opponent Powerful - Based On An Incident From The Life Of Sri Krishna

Anger only destroys and causes harm to oneself. A story on anger based on incident from the life of Bhagavan Sri Krishna on Earth. It shows that our opponents become powerful due to our anger. Once, Balarama, Sri Krishna, and Satyaki left their palace on some work. All three of them had horses that could run very fast. They soon reached a dense forest. The sun was setting and it was getting dark. Having decided that it was not safe to go any further, they agreed to spend the remaining night there and tied their horses to the trees. The first quarter of the night passed thus. They had to spend the remaining three-quarters in the forest. They decided that each one of them would stand guard by turns, every quarter of the night, while the other two would sleep. Satyaki's Anger Makes the Ghost Powerful Satyaki had the first turn to stand guard. At that time, there appeared a terrible and frightening ghost. It roared at Satyaki: ‘Hey! If you permit me to eat these two, I wo

Bhagavad Gita On Why Work and Healthy Body Maintenance Is Necessary? – Idleness and Escapism Leads to Misery

There is a wrong notion among many people that Hindu scriptures support inaction, idleness and lack of body maintenance. The concept of Maya or illusion is used by many as a pretext to escape from one’s duties and family and social responsibilities. These verses in the Bhagavad Gita clearly state that idleness and escapism leads to misery not to Moksha or Liberation. The commentary to these verses are by Swami Chinmayananda. You perform (your) bounden duty; for, action is superior to inaction. Even the maintenance of the body would not be possible for you by inaction. (Chapter III, Verse 8) In our work-a-day world, we must understand this term 'bounden duty' (Niyatam Karma) in the text, to include all "obligatory actions" of an individual in his home, in his office, and in the society as a national being. Thus, not to perform diligently all our duties in the home and in the world outside would be inaction. We are warned that even a healthy b