Lord Shiva is worshipped as Panchanana Shiva (Siva with five faces) in some temples in India . The five faces are etched on Shivling or Shiva Lingam and is known as Panchamukha Shiva Linga – five heads of Shiva carved on Linga. The five faces of Lord Shiva are known as Sadyojat, Vamdev, Aghora, Tatpurush and Ishana. And they represent direction and an aspect of Lord Shiva. Some ancient temples also have sculptures of Lord Shiva with five faces. Some paintings also depict Shiva with five faces. An important prayer (Stotra) dedicated to Panchanana Shiva is the Shiva Panchanana Stotram. It explains about the glory of the each face of Lord Shiva in the Panchamukha Shivalinga. As per the prayer, the four faces of Shiva faces four directions and the fifth faces the sky. In some texts, the fifth face facing the sky is replaced by a face on the southeast direction. Another symbolism suggests that the fifth face is the energy that sustains all and is present everywhere. Mo

Varaha Moorthy Temple is situated at Sreevaraham near Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum, Kerala. This is a rare Varaha temple in India with Goddess Lakshmi sitting on the lap of Lord Varaha. Thus the temple is also known as Sreevaraham Temple or Lakshmi Varaha Temple. It is believed that there are only three Varaha temples in Kerala and only a total of 24 Varaha temples all over India. Varaha, is the third incarnation, of Lord Vishnu. Sreevaraham Temple Timings Morning - 5:00 AM to 11:30 AM Evening - 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM Big Pond - Varaha Theertham Varaha Moorthy Temple has one of the biggest temple ponds in Kerala – around 8 acres. The pond is known as Varaha Theertham and is believed to be the second largest temple pond in Kerala. A mandapam is located in the middle of the pond. As per legend, the temple pond was created by Arjuna of Mahabharata. It is one among the 108 teerthams in India. The Main Varaha Moorthy Temple  The main sanctum sanc

Chaitya is a particular type of temple that existed during the Vedic period. These are the Hindu temples in Vedas. The procedure of Chaitya worship is laid down in Asvalayana Grihya Sutra of 600 BC. Chaitya contains the relics of a saintly person, collected from his funeral pyre, called Chita. As these temples were constructed of perishable materials, their remains are not found, but their replicas in the form of rock-cut caves can be seen. A Chaitya temple has an apsidal elongated hall with the shrine at the apsidal end. The shrine has the platform over which a pot with the relics is placed for worship. On the front side is a pillared hall with side aisles, which provide pradakshina (a path for circumambulation), which formed part of the Vedic ritual. The roof was thatched over supporting rafter. A semicircular window was placed above the front door to light the hall. This window design was subsequently used as a decorative motif in caves and temples. The Cha

Kurukshetra battle had ended and Yudhisthira had become the king of Hastinapur. But he had lost all the wealth in the battle. Sage Vyasa one day visited Yudhisthira and asked him to conduct the famous Ashwamedha yajna for the shanti of all those in the family who had died. Yudhisthira, who was Dharmaraj, never lied and he told Sage Vyasa that he did not have the wealth even to give dakshina to visiting sages. It was impossible for him to even think about conducting Ashwamedha yajna which was a very costly sacrifice. Then Veda Vyasa told Yudhisthira about king Maharishi Marut who once ruled the region. He had once conducted an Ashwamedha Yajna in the Himalayas. He gifted gold to all those people who participated in the yajna. It was impossible to carry all the gold they received in dakshina. So people dropped all the gold they could not carry in a very large pit in the Himalayas. Sage Vyasa then asked Yudhisthira to find the gold in the Himalayas and use it to conduct

Negative thinking is damaging in so many ways. Negativity is all-consuming and cannot share space with positivity. It can crowd your mind and your spirit to the point that it blocks any feeling of happiness from reaching you. When negative thoughts prevail in mind, do they help you come to constructive conclusions or solutions? Of course not...they actually prevent you from doing so. What is more, they don’t make the situation go away any faster or create a quicker resolution. They don’t help in any way at all. Another internal damaging effect from negative thinking is that it becomes a barrier around your mind and soul, blocking out any light from getting in. In that obscurity, your mind becomes busy and easily falls into circular thinking patterns, where the same ideas and memories keep going around and around, never letting up. Your spirit becomes heavy, sadness or anger creeps in and takes up any room you may have had for feeling great. You find it hard to sleep, hard