Moh - Female Avatar: 2014

Sunday, 28 December 2014

How Work Stopped in Hell

http://fastinginformation.blogspot.in/2011/06/story-from-narada-purana.html

Thursday, 18 December 2014

The pilgrimage to sabarimala is considered incomplete without the darshan of Lord Ayyappa's mother.

The one and only temple with such a unique installation found in no other district of Kerala is "Sri Harikanyaka Devi Kshethra" of Arikanniyoor lying to the east of Guruvayur at a distance of 4 km in Thrissur district.

Undertaken by the Archeology department for its immense sculptural excellence created by "Perunthachan" the famous "Vasthushilpi" and his magical tools - the temple has a glorious past of 1000 and more years.

It is a history that the Guruvayur temple and the areas surrounding Guruvayur had been under this illustrious temple of Sree Harikanyaka. The invasion of outsiders had affected the wealth of the temple tremendously.

The foremost feature of the temple is certainly its deity and the rituals connected, which is quite different picture in itself. Though, all minute details relating to the age old customs followed here is rather difficult to narrate, some outstanding specialties can indeed be specified such as

ladies are expected to sing "stuthees" and hold "kuthuvilakku" while performing a particular pooja.
The 15 days annual festival is main attraction. It is a custom that Devi must be accompanied by Ayyappa, while she leaves temple premises during the annual festival. Lord Ayyappa, is in form of an archer, takes his mother's guard during the ceremony.
Only female elephants are allowed to carry "Thidamb" of Devi and Ayyappa.

The charm and grace of the "deity of Mohini" is so immense that it fills the heart of every devotee with peace. Probably because she beholds the form of "Shantha Swaroopini" in the sanctum of the temple. The hilltop view and stone carved dusty path is totally spectacular.

The temple's divinity and powers of Devi had been a solace for many childless couples and young unmarried youngsters.

http://wikimapia.org/123629/Harikanyaka-Bhagavati-Temple

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

Vakradhundar

When Basmasuran was killed by Siva & Vishnu (Vishnu in the form of Mohini), Duraasadan, Basmasuran's son was angry and upset. He did tapas & got boons from Siva that he should never die and that all the devas should be under his control, etc.

As usual Siva gave him the varam (boon) & there was total chaos for some time. All the Devas ran into hiding & even Brahma & Vishnu ran out of their Brahma Logam & Vaikundam. All of them rushed to Kasi which was ruled by Viswanathar.

On hearing this, Duraasadan came to Kasi. All the Gods and Devas rushed away to Kedaram, because the time was not yet right to kill Duraasadan.

Soon, on the prayers of the Devas, an avataram of Lord Ganesha came out of Uma Devi's face. (with five faces, 10 hands, Jada magudam, the matted locks adorned by the moon). Uma Devi named him Vakradhundar and gave him her Simha Vahanam (lion vehicle). There ensued a heavy fight between Vakradhundar & Duraasadan. Finally Ganesha took a huge form (Viswa roopam) & placed his feet on Duraasandan's head. Since Ganesha is the form of Gnanam, all evil thoughts & the effects of his evil deeds rushed out of Duraasadan. Lord Ganesha gave him the job of destroying all evil in Kasi. He remains under Vakradhundar's feet doing his duty.

Seductive

“Most people are familiar with the ten famous avatars of Lord Vishnu, but there is one more interesting incarnation – Mohini the seductive enchantress – an intoxicating beautiful woman who could blind the senses of men, devas, asuras and even the great Lord Mahadev Shiva himself. Lord Vishnu takes this form of Mohini whenever it is needed to restore tranquility and justice in a confused state of affairs. It is said she is a femme fatale, leading those that covet her with lust to their doom.

The devas (demi-gods) made a pact with the asuras to churning the ocean of milk (samudra mandhan) to obtain amrita (the nectar of immortality). The devas agreed to do so under the orders of Lord Vishnu, who knew they would need amrita in order to win the battle over asuras. But when questioned what to do when the asuras come to claim their share of amrita as they were also involved in the churning process, Lord Vishnu said that he would take care of it and assured the devas not to worry.

The devas took possession of all the good things that were given out during the churning of the ocean of milk. Lord Shiva consumed the Halahala poison that was given out during the churning to protect those who were involved in the process. When finally the churning was over and all the amrita was collected in a pot, there came a fierce demand for it from the asuras as they were also a part of the tedious churning.

Lord Vishnu then took the form of Mohini, the seductive enchantress and appeared in front of the devas and asuras. None could escape or resist the mind numbing beauty and appeal of the enchantress Mohini. Mohini took possession of the amrita and assured both the devas and asuras that she would equally distribute the nectar of immortality between them.

Mohini asks the devas and asuras form lines of queues side by side and that she would provide them amrita taking turns from each side of the line. As Lord Vishnu is the great intellect that battles trickery with trickery, his incarnate Mohini provided amrita only to the devas and when it was the turn to serve an asura, she magically turned the content of the pot to water and served it to asuras. An asura named Rahu, got suspicious of Mohini’s activity. So he disguised himself as one of the devas and waited in the line of devas. He received a drop of amrita from Mohini. The sun god Surya and the moon god Chandra understood the trickery of Rahu and intimated this to Mohini. Mohini, in order to stop an asura from having amrita, at once regained the original form of Lord Vishnu. Before the drop of amrita passed through Rahu’s throat, Vishnu severed his head using the sudharsana chakra.

This head of Rahu, which had tasted amrita, became an immortal wandering celestial body and since he was ratted out by Sun god Surya and Moon god Chandra, as a revenge, he would devour the sun and moon causing the respective solar and lunar eclipse according to mythology.

Mohini, thus saved the day for the devas by delivering the amrita only to them, with which they had an upper hand over the asuras in battle and won them over.”

Sunday, 31 August 2014

Brahma

This is a story about the pride of Brahma, our Creator. One day, Brahma was meditating. In his meditation he had gone higher than the highest, deeper than the deepest. He was in ecstasy. Brahma said to himself, “How I wish I could spend all my time in this sublime meditation!”

Suddenly, there appeared in front of him the most beautiful nymph, or apsara. Her name was Mohini. She said to Brahma, “I want to marry you.”

Brahma got furious. “I was in such ecstasy, such bliss, and you have to come here and charm me! Never! Do not come near me. Leave me alone!”

Mohini was deeply insulted. “I am leaving you alone, but not before I curse you. From now on, nobody will worship you, nobody! The other cosmic gods will be worshipped and adored but you will never, never be worshipped by any human being!”

Mohini’s curse came true and Brahma was no longer worshipped. He felt miserable, and so he went to Vishnu for advice. While he was waiting in Vishnu’s palace, he saw somebody just like himself, except that this figure had ten heads. Then he saw another figure like himself, but with one hundred heads, and a third with one thousand heads. All of them looked exactly like him, but he had only four heads.

When Vishnu entered the room, Brahma asked him who these other figures were. Vishnu replied, “These are all Brahmas, like you. You are not the only Brahma! You have to know that there are many universes and each universe is represented by one Brahma, one Creator. There are hundreds of universes and hundreds of Brahmas. They look exactly like you, but you have only four heads, whereas they have many, many more.”

http://simultaneouslyoneanddifferent.blogspot.com/2014/08/opulences.html

Poor Brahma! He had come to Vishnu for consolation, but Vishnu had smashed his pride. Then Brahma told Vishnu about Mohini’s curse and very humbly asked Vishnu how he could make the curse void.

Vishnu said, “You can dispel Mohini’s curse only if you listen to me. You must meditate for 60,000 years and then you must go to the holy river Ganga and bathe. Only then will you be free from the curse.”