Shree Baglamukhi Mahavidya : The Most Powerful weapon

In Hinduism, Bagalamukhi or Bagala is one of the ten mahavidyas (great wisdom goddesses). Bagalamukhi Devi smashes the devotee's (or the devotee's enemies') misconceptions and delusions with her cudgel. She is also known as Pitambara in Northern Parts of India.

Iconography

"Bagalamukhi" is derived from "Bagala" (distortion of the original Sanskrit root "valgā") and "mukha", meaning "bridle" and "face", respectively. Thus, the name means one whose face has the power to capture or control. She thus represents the hypnotic power of the Goddess. Another interpretation translates her name as “crane faced”.

Bagalamukhi has a golden complexion and her dress is yellow. She sits in a golden throne in the midst of an ocean of nectar full of yellow lotuses. A crescent moon adorns her head. Two descriptions of the goddess are found in various texts- The Dwi-Bhuja (two handed), and the Chaturbhuja (Four handed).

The Dwi-Bhuja depiction is the more common, and is described as the Soumya or milder form. She holds a club in her right hand with which she beats a demon, while pulling his tongue out with her left hand. This image is sometimes interpreted as an exhibition of stambhana, the power to stun or paralyse an enemy into silence. This is one of the boons for which Bagalamukhi’s devotees worship her. Other Mahavidya goddesses are also said to represent similar powers useful for defeating enemies, to be invoked by their worshippers through various rituals.

Bagalamukhi is also called Pitambaradevi or Brahmastra Roopini and she turns each thing into its opposite. She turns speech into silence, knowledge into ignorance, power into impotence, defeat into victory. She represents the knowledge whereby each thing must in time become its opposite. As the still point between dualities she allows us to master them. To see the failure hidden in success, the death hidden in life, or the joy hidden in sorrow are ways of contacting her reality. Bagalamukhi is the secret presence of the opposite wherein each thing is dissolved back into the Unborn and the Uncreated.

Legend

Once upon a time, a huge storm erupted over the Earth. As it threatened to destroy whole of the creation, all the gods assembled in the Saurashtra region. Goddess Bagalamukhi emerged from the 'Haridra Sarovara', and appeased by the prayers of the gods, calmed down the storm.

Worship

Major temples to the goddess are situated in the Himachal Pradesh in the north, and at Nalkheda at Shajapur and Datia in Madhya Pradesh. Nepal, where the worship of tantric goddesses had Royal patronage, also has a large temple devoted to Bagalamukhi in the Newar city of Patan. The territory of the Bagalamukhi temple in Patan also has several other temples dedicated to Ganesha, Shiva, Saraswati, Guheswar, Bhairava etc. The main difference between any other temple and a Bagalamukhi temple is that if someone worships all the gods in this temple, they would actually worship all 330 million gods and goddesses at one place. Bagalamukhi Devi Temple is situated at Guma in Mandi, in the state of Himachal Pradesh in North India. Large numbers of Hindu devotees offer prayers here to fulfil their wishes. Bagalamukhi Puja is performed by an experienced Pandit, as any mistake in the ritual may result in bad effects.

Bagalamukhi Devi is one of the ten Hindu Goddesses of Power. Bagalamukhi Puja is performed according to Vedic ritual, to defeat enemies. It not only decreases the power of the enemy, but also creates an atmosphere where they become helpless. The Abhimantrit Bagalamukhi Yantra is also used for the same purpose. It protects the person from enemies and evils. There is a beautiful Mandir of Maa Bagalamukhi in Varanasi as well.

Bhakt Surdas : Great Poetic Saint

As I discussed in my earlier Post about Adi Shankaracharya, that due to server failure, I was unable to publish about Bhakt Surdas, now this is all about him.

There is scanty information about the life of Sant Surdas, (The dates of his date and birth are not really very clear), the medieval poet-singer of Braj the land associated with Lord Krishna. His compositions are in Braj Bhasha a dialect of Hindi that was considered crude at the time. Surdas' works are some of those credited with raising this dialect to a literary status.

Surdas was born blind to poor parents and because of this he was a victim of neglect and abuse. He left home at the tender age of 6.

The greatest blessing of Surdas's life came when Sri Vallabhacharya, the celebrated exponent of the Shuddhadvaita. also known as Pushti Marga, accepted him as his disciple. From his teacher he received knowledge of hindu philosophy.

He memorized the Srimad Bhagavata and other hymns in Sanskrit.

He portrayed in exquisite poetry the life of Krishna, especially child Krishna, in such vivid detail that he has not been equalled by any saint or poet, not even Kalidasa, in describing childhood.

It is one of the marvels in the realms of literature how a blind poet could portray in such meticulous and colourful detail the childhood of Krishna, stage by stage. Krishna's cutting his first tooth, his uttering of the first word, his taking the first step unaided, are all occasions for Surdas to compose inspired songs which are sung even to this day, in hundreds of homes, by mothers who see child Krishna in their own children.

The love that had been denied to him as a child flows by means of his songs on, the love that was showered on Bala Gopala in Braj by Yashoda, Nandagopa, the Gopis and the Gopas.

Surdas never entertained any idea of marriage but saw in Sri Krishna the eternal lover and he portrayed the love between Radha and Krishna as ethereal love-the irresistible attraction the individual soul has for the Oversoul or of the Jivatma for the Paramatma.

His work consists primarily of three major compilations, the Sur-Saravali, the Sahitya-Lahiri and the Sur-Sagar. The Saravali is supposed to have
originally one hundred thousand verses but many have been lost forever. It is based on the analogy of the Holi festival, by far the most popular of the festivals of the time, and always associated with Krishna as part of his Divine Play. Apart from being great narrative poetry they are also significant sources of information about the past.

The Sahitya-Lahiri is supposedly a treatise of various forms of poetical composition, dealing primarily with Bhakti.

The Sur-Sagar is his masterpiece, the ‘Oceanic work’ as its name indicates and remains the most influential and important of all his works. It deals with the life of Krishna in detail.

His fame was wide spread though he never left his native land, even the Mughal emperor Akbar paid homage to him.

Aadi Guru Shankaracharya

In this year 2010, the birthday of Shri Adi Shankaracharya came on 18th of May, but due to the server system failure I was quite unable to publish post about Him. On this day the birthday of Saint Soordas was also there. But I was quite unable to write about both and that is why, I am publishing something about HIM today. I'll try to write about Saint Soordas also. But now, this is only about Aadi Shankaracharya. He was the Great Hindu Saint and the Great Hindu Philosopher. He was the only person who is seemed to be avataar of Lord Shankar and that is why he was quite capable to rebuilt the Sanatan Hindu Dharma in India.

Shri Adi Shankaracharya or the first Shankara with his remarkable reinterpretations of Hindu scriptures, especially on Upanishads or Vedanta, had a profound influence on the growth of Hinduism at a time when chaos, superstition and bigotry was rampant. Shankara advocated the greatness of the Vedas and was the most famous Advaita philosopher who restored the Vedic Dharma and Advaita Vedanta to its pristine purity and glory.

Shri Adi Shankaracharya, known as Bhagavatpada Acharya (the guru at the feet of Lord), apart from refurbishing the scriptures, cleansed the Vedic religious practices of ritualistic excesses and ushered in the core teaching of Vedanta, which is Advaita or non-dualism for the mankind. Shankara restructured various forms of desultory religious practices into acceptable norms and stressed on the ways of worship as laid down in the Vedas.

Shankara’s Childhood

Shankara was born in a Brahmin family circa 788 AD in a village named Kaladi on the banks of the river Purna (now Periyar) in the Southern Indian coastal state Kerala. His parents, Sivaguru and Aryamba, had been childless for a long time and the birth of Shankara was a joyous and blessed occasion for the couple. Legend has it that Aryamba had a vision of Lord Shiva and promised her that he would incarnate in the form of her first-born child.

Shankara was a prodigious child and was hailed as ‘Eka-Sruti-Dara’, one who can retain anything that has been read just once. Shankara mastered all the Vedas and the six Vedangas from the local gurukul and recited extensively from the epics and Puranas. Shankara also studied the philosophies of diverse sects and was a storehouse of philosophical knowledge.

Philosophy of Adi Shankara

Shankara spread the tenets of Advaita Vedanta, the supreme philosophy of monism to the four corners of India with his ‘digvijaya’ (the conquest of the quarters). The quintessence of Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism) is to reiterate the truth of reality of one’s essential divine identity and to reject one’s thought of being a finite human being with a name and form subject to earthly changes.

According to the Advaita maxim, the True Self is Brahman (Divine Creator). Brahman is the ‘I’ of ‘Who Am I?’ The Advaita doctrine propagated by Shankara views that the bodies are manifold but the separate bodies have the one Divine in them.

The phenomenal world of beings and non-beings is not apart from the Brahman but ultimately become one with Brahman. The crux of Advaita is that Brahman alone is real, and the phenomenal world is unreal or an illusion. Through intense practice of the concept of Advaita, ego and ideas of duality can be removed from the mind of man.

The comprehensive philosophy of Shankara is inimitable for the fact that the doctrine of Advaita includes both worldly and transcendental experience.

Shankara while stressing the sole reality of Brahman, did not undermine the phenomenal world or the multiplicity of Gods in the scriptures.

Shankara’s philosophy is based on three levels of reality, viz., paramarthika satta (Brahman), vyavaharika satta (empirical world of beings and non-beings) and pratibhashika satta (reality).

Shankara’s theology maintains that seeing the self where there is no self causes spiritual ignorance or avidya. One should learn to distinguish knowledge (jnana) from avidya to realize the True Self or Brahman. He taught the rules of bhakti, yoga and karma to enlighten the intellect and purify the heart as Advaita is the awareness of the ‘Divine’.

Shankara developed his philosophy through commentaries on the various scriptures. It is believed that the revered saint completed these works before the age of sixteen. His major works fall into three distinct categories – commentaries on the Upanishads, the Brahmasutras and the Bhagavad Gita.

The most important of the works is the commentaries on the Brahmasutras – Brahmasutrabhashya – considered the core of Shankara’s philosophy of Advaita.

Shankaracharya’s Monastic Centers

Shri Shankaracharya established four ‘mutts’ or monastic centers in four corners of India and put his four main disciples to head them and serve the spiritual needs of the ascetic community within the Vedantic tradition. He classified the wandering mendicants into 10 main groups to consolidate their spiritual strength.

Each mutt was assigned one Veda. The mutts are Jyothir Mutt at Badrinath in northern India with Atharva Veda; Sarada Mutt at Sringeri in southern India with Yajur Veda; Govardhan Mutt at Jaganath Puri in eastern India with Rig Veda and Kalika Mutt at Dwarka in western India with Sama Veda.

It is believed that Shankara attained heavenly abode in Kedarnath and was only 32 years old when he died.

Bhagwan Parshuram - The Sixth Vishnu Avataar

Bagwan Parshuram, the Eternal Avatar, appears again and again when the planet is in great danger. Parashurama Bhargava or Parasurama (Axe-wielding Rama), according to Hindu mythology is the Sixth avatara of Vishnu, belongs to the Treta yuga, and is the son of Jamadagni. Parashu means axe, hence his name literally means Rama-with-the-axe.

The purpose of the sixth incarnation or Sixth Avatara of Vishnu is considered by religious scholars to be to relieve the earth's burden by exterminating the sinful, destructive and irreligious monarchs that pillaged its resources, and neglected their duties as kings.

He received an axe after undertaking a terrible penance to please Shiva, from whom he learned the methods of warfare and other skills. He is a Chiranjeevin, who fought the aggressing ocean to recede thus saving land of Konkan and Malabar Bhagwan Parashuram is also known as Lord of Yajnya, Lord who grants prosperity, and Lord of knowledge. According to ancient Himalayan tradition of knowledge, Parshuram was the first to introduce inter- planetary weapons on this planet in ancient days, when the planet needed protection from catastrophes caused by the greed and pride of the ruling powers.

Parashurama has been mentioned in several scriptures - Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and Bhagavata and Kalki Puranas. He is famous for killing the Haihaya-Kshatriyas on the earth 21 times for their Ahankara (pride/arrogance). He wanted to spread & preserve the Vedic culture on Earth. He was born a Brahmin but is Kshatriya by Karma, or deeds. He is also known as Bhargava.

Parashurama is famous for killing the Haihaya-Kshatriyas on the earth 21 times for their Ahankara (pride/arrogance). He wanted to spread & preserve the Vedic culture on Earth.

Guru Parshuram

Parshurama's well known students were : 1. Bhishma - The son of Goddess Ganga. 2 Drona, the teacher of the Pandus and Kurus. and (3.) Karna. the great warrior of Mahabharat Parashurama was the guru of both Bheeshma (Devavrata) and Dronacharya. Also, the Sudarshan chakra (or Sudarshan Vidya) is said to be given by Parashurama to Krishna.

Birth of Lord Parshurama

Parashurama was the Great Grandson of Bhrugu Rishi, after whom the "Bhruguvansh" has been named. Bhrugu's Son, Rucheek, married King Gadhi's daughter, Satyavati. The son of Satyavati Jamadagni and Grandson was Parashurama. Jamadagni married Renuka, daughter of King Prasenjit. They had five sons, Parashurama was the youngest.

Legends
Once King Kartavirya Arjuna (Sahasrarjuna) and his army visited Jamadagni, a brahmin sage, who fed his guest and the whole army with his divine cow Surabhi; the king demanded the magical cow and Jamadagni refused because he needed the cow for his religious ceremonies. King Kartavirya Arjuna (Sahasrarjuna) sent his soldiers to take the cow and Parashurama killed the entire army and the king with his axe. In return, the princes beheaded Jamadagni the father of Parshuram.

When Parashurama returned home he found his mother crying hysterically. He asked why she was crying, she beat her chest 21 times. In a rage, Parashurama vowed to exterminate the world's Kshatriyas 21 times. He killed the entire clan of Kartavirya Arjuna (Sahasrarjuna), thus conquering the entire earth. He offered his dead father's soul tarpana with the blood of the kings and warriors he slew. He then conducted the Ashwamedha sacrifice, done only by sovereign kings, and gave the entire land he owned to the priests who performed at the yagya.

Parashurama in the Ramayana

Lord Rama in the Swaibar of the princess Sita daughter of King Janaka broke the bow of Shiva given to the King Janaka by Parashurama.. By breaking the bow it produced a tremendous noise that reached the ears of Parashurama. Parashurama arrived after hearing the sound of the bow of Shiva breaking. But Sita approached the sage. and able to secure the blessing "Saubhagyawati bhavah" .from Parashurama.

Parashurama in the Mahabharata

It is mentioned in the Mahabharata that Parashurama was the teacher of the warrior Karna. When Karna came to Parashurama after being rejected from the school of Parashurama agreed to teach Karna, believing him to not be of Kshatriya birth and gave him the knowledge of the extremely powerful Brahmastra weapon.
Parashurama decided to slay Bhishma and fought with him for twenty three days, when Bhishma refused to marry Amba At the end when Bhishma was about to use the most deadly weapon namely "Pashwapastra". against Parashurama, all Gods rushed to Bhishma and requested him not to use this weapon against Parshurama Bhishma refrained it from using it. In the end, all Gods and Parshuram himself showered praise on Bhishma and acknowledged that Bhishma is truly invincible.

Jain Version on Parshurama

According to Jain version of Parashurama, he was killed by Chakravati Subhoum. Subhoum was the son of Sahasrarjun and 8th Chakravarti of the total 12 Chakravartis. The Jain version is available in Trishasti Shalaka Purush, the famous Jain book on 63 great people of ancient times.

Kalki Purana on Parshurama

The Kalki Purana states Parashurama will be the martial guru of Sri Kalki, the 10th and final avatar of Lord Vishnu. It is he who instructs Kalki to perform a long penance to Shiva to receive celestial weaponry.

Later life of Parshuram

Parashurama became an ascetic and practiced penances, mainly on the Mahendra Mountains. in his later life and gave up violence. The territories he received from the Kshatriyas were distributed among the Brahmrishi Brahmins. They ruled these lands for many centuries. Parashurama also retrieved from the sea a virgin-land which was a stretch of coastal-area to the west of Western Ghats of India a part of the land of Kerala from the sea.