Sun (Body) Moon (Mind): July 2017

Saturday, 22 July 2017

Sandhya

Shiva Purana narrated an intersting link of the most revered Devis: Lord Brahma created Sandhya and Manmatha as his ‘Manasika’ or mind born children. He got infatuated with Sandhya and Lord Rudra chastised Brahma and the latter looked for an opportunity when Rudra might also be a victim of passion and Vishnu said that Maha Deva was above such temptations. Meanwhile Sandhya Devi who was ashamed of Brahma’s passion resorted to fierce Tapasya to Maha Deva for thousand years under the tutelage of Maharshi Vasishtha in disguise as Sage Medatithi as per Brahma’s instruction. Since there was no response from Shiva she got desperate and tried to jump into the Homa Kunda (The Sacred Fire-Pit) in the Yagna being performed by Medatithi. Shiva made his appearance as she desired that none on her clan should ever be a victim like Brahma, that she should be an example of chastity and her husband should never cast a lustful eye on another woman. Shiva granted her wishes and advised that she might now fall into the fire-pit thinking of a person whom she desired to be her husband in her next birth. Shiva further gave her the boon that she would be the daughter of Daksha Prajapati as Sati Devi and as the daughter of Himavan as Parvati Devi in her subsequent two births. Sandhya then leapt into the fire-pit thinking of Medatithi (Vasishtha) as the husband in the immediate next birth. The Prana Vayu or the Vital Air of Sandhya’s burnt body was carried to the Solar System and Surya Deva converted it into three parts as

Pratah Sandhya
Madhyahnika Sandhya and
Sayah Sandhya

or of the morning-noon-evening timings of a day. The Sages at the Yagna were wonder struck that Sandhya was re-born as a girl-child as named Arundhati and was married to Vasishta when she came of age and earned the examplary fame of chastity; the practice of Vedic weddings is followed by the visioning of the Arundhati Star on the Sky by the new-weds as a part of the wedding procedure till date.

http://www.shivshankar.in/episodes-related-to-shiva-and-parvati/

Thursday, 20 July 2017

Astras

Vishwakarma and Devas prayed to Surya to reduce the severity of his Swarupa to sixteenth of his original energy.[ The remaining parts were absorbed in

Lord Vishnu’s Sudarshana Chakra,
Shiva’s Trishula,
Kubera’s Palki or palaanquin,
Yama Raja’s ‘danda’ or stick,
Kartikeya’s weapon called Shakti and
various Astras or Mantrika Arrows].

Wednesday, 19 July 2017

Khajuraho

Hemvati was a beautiful young woman for whom the famous temples of Khajuraho have been built.

The legend goes that she was having a bath in a pool near her house in Benares (now Varanasi) in the moonlight. Her ravishing beauty so much captured the fancy of the moon god that he could not help descending to earth to meet her. Hemvati had an affair with the moon god. She conceived a child out of this relationship. Since it had happened out of wedlock, Hemvati was worried and asked the moon god about her fate once he departed from the earth. The moon god prophesied that their son would be the first king of Khajuraho. She was asked by the moon god to leave for a forest of khajurs (date palm trees) far away from Benares to deliver her child. When he grows up, the moon god told her, he should perform a sacrificial ritual that included among its rites the depiction of erotic figures. He should also build 85 temples at the forest of Khajurs, which subsequently came to be known as Khajuraho, all carved with erotic figures. This would free his mother, said the moon god, from the blemish of extramarital love.

Hemvati then left her home to give birth to her son in a tiny village. The child, Chandravarman, was as lustrous as his father, brave and strong. By the time he was 16 years old he could kill tigers or lions with his bare hands. Delighted by his feats, Hemvati invoked the Moon god, who installed him as king at Khajuraho. Chandravarman achieved a series of brilliant victories and built a mighty fortress at Kalinjar. At his mother's request he began the building of 85 glorious temples with lakes and gardens at Khajuraho and performed the ritual which expunged her of her guilt.

http://theonlymale.blogspot.com/search/label/Khajuraho